Gift hoarding raises questions
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 27/12/2015 (3665 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Dear Miss Lonelyhearts: What does it mean when a person hoards their presents and doesn’t even wear them or display them, just keeps them in drawers, all wrapped up except for an opening at one end? This holiday when my the cousins were here, we cleaned out our old aunt’s house (she died) and she had every gift given to her for years and years in a bunch of dressers.
The gifts looked totally perfect, and weren’t very dusty, like she cleaned them. The rest of her house is not cluttered, but she has several dressers in one room chock full of gifts. I just don’t get it. What’s with the gifts, when she hoarded nothing else? It’s bugging my mind at night. Can you please explain this?
— Faithful Reader, North End
Dear Faithful: People think hoarding is hanging onto everything, but that’s not necessarily true. There is sometimes a theme, and in this case, it may have been an attachment to people who gave the gifts. The hoarder may feel afraid they might lose that person, so they need to keep all the things they give as presents. Some people may have started this gift hoarding with a traumatic event, such as a Christmas when they got nothing at all, or a Christmas when somebody important died, and now all they have left of that person is the gifts they gave.
Some people are afraid to damage anything they got as a gift, so they leave it in the wrapping. Others don’t have much that’s new or pretty in their lives, so they keep these presents in their collection and take the gifts out occasionally and enjoy looking at them. It’s not about being dirty or messy, and is nothing to be mocked. In this case, it may have been proof your aunt was loved and cared about.
Please send your questions and comments to lovecoach@hotmail.com or Miss Lonelyhearts c/o the Winnipeg Free Press, 1355 Mountain Ave., Winnipeg, MB, R2X 3B6
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Advertisement Advertise With Us