When You Give a Gift, You Have the Right to Use It… Right? [OPINION]
I may have just been introduced to the greatest loophole in gift giving ever!
Have you ever bought something for someone else, but then realized that you wanted it for yourself so you never actually gave it to them? Maybe you have actually gone through with the giving of the gift, but you regret it and find yourself inviting yourself over to at least look at the gift? Been there, purchased that.
Over the holidays, I found myself getting really jealous of the people I was shopping for. This has never really happened to me before as I'm an expert gift giver and I'm more generous that Santa, the Easter Bunny, Cupid and the Tooth Fairy combined. Ok, maybe not the Tooth Fairy, but you get the point. The feeling remained though... I wanted what they were getting.
But now, I've found a loophole.
At Christmas, my mother in law gave me a beautiful new bag. It's one of those bags that is so nice you just put it on a shelf because you're afraid using it will ruin it. Well, earlier this week she spent the night with us before going on a trip and asked if she could borrow it. Of course I was more than happy to lend it to her because she gave me the bag...
Light bulb!
For some reason, I felt more inclined to let her borrow something because she gave it to me in the first place. Think about that for a second. It may have to do with some deeply rooted feelings of guilt because she spent money on the bag, but this opens up so many doors. Now I can give lavish gifts knowing that I could possibly persuade someone to let me borrow it in the future. I mean, they've probably felt the same way I did standing in the closet holding my that bag.
Now it's up to you whether you return the "borrowed" item or not. I don't think I could live with myself unless I returned it.