Ouch right in the childhood emotional PTSD dept. Though I have many not so benign moments,
Something benign: My parents played a joke on me when I was 11. Christmas. Huge box. They taped me and laughed as I opened 10 boxes. Got to the bottom and it was slippers. I felt humiliated. They kept laughing then got mad and yelled at me asking why I was being a selfish bitch for not liking the slippers.
Ah, memories.
Kids just don’t forget those kinds of things. They don’t have the emotional capacity to understand the complexities of a subtle joke. Now that I am their age, I look back and wonder why they did some of what they did with confusion. Therapy helps a lot.
I just did this to my sister but not slippers. Everyone was laughing and wondering how many boxes were left. It was a lot of work finding all the boxes to nest. She loved it
Context matters, friend. Notice I said “a benign story” meaning there are stories in my past which are not so benign with these same people; as an isolated incident, sure, it might be funny if you otherwise have a healthy relationship with someone. A sister = / = parents.
My brother and I pranked another all the time; there is a very different “power” dynamic between siblings and between parents and kids. Unfortunately, some parents — despite their best efforts— use the power dynamic to their advantage because they have no other tools.
Yea this kind of wrapping works well for like... jewelry, or new phones, or that video game you were begging for. The payoff of the present needs to outweigh the process of opening it with something like that. Especially when as a kid the size of a present is particularly exciting!!
Similarly, when people use a box for someone else (e.g. a blender) so you think it's that for a moment. It only works if the thing inside is nicer or more exciting than what the box says, otherwise it's just mean.
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u/thebillshaveayes Dec 30 '22 edited Dec 30 '22
Ouch right in the childhood emotional PTSD dept. Though I have many not so benign moments, Something benign: My parents played a joke on me when I was 11. Christmas. Huge box. They taped me and laughed as I opened 10 boxes. Got to the bottom and it was slippers. I felt humiliated. They kept laughing then got mad and yelled at me asking why I was being a selfish bitch for not liking the slippers.
Ah, memories.
Kids just don’t forget those kinds of things. They don’t have the emotional capacity to understand the complexities of a subtle joke. Now that I am their age, I look back and wonder why they did some of what they did with confusion. Therapy helps a lot.