With the holidays around the corner, I've been thinking about the differences in expected labor between men and women during this time. A thought popped up in my mind and I just wanted to ask if you ladies share my experience.
I've never known a man to wrap gifts. Honestly, thinking about the discrepancy in number of gifts wrapped and care put into them between men and women is blowing my mind. I've known men who HAVE wrapped gifts, but no where near the amount that the women in my life have and usually very carelessly. They also always seem to make a joke about the terrible job they've done or complain about how pointless and irritating the fact they had to wrap a gift is. The women I know, myself included, have wrapped hundreds of gifts. I understand that not all people enjoy it, but I feel the extra effort that goes into it is telling. I personally love wrapping a nice gift for someone I love, I think about them while I'm wrapping and I'm excited to treat them. It makes me wonder if men are so selfish they don't actually get a good feeling from doing something nice for others, and their almost purposely bad wrapping is a tiny way to get back at the person they've been forced to get a gift for. Like, "here's your gift, but I don't really care". I've heard many excuses from men, but imo they all boil down to they don't want to put in the effort and they don't care. I think a green flag I'm going to look for in the future is a man that cares enough to nicely wrap a gift.
So I'm curious, am I off base? do you know men who put in effort to wrap gifts nicely? And why is it do you think that men are so opposed to gift wrapping?
I'd also love to hear personal experiences of men's low effort wrapping!
Thanks for reading!
Honestly I have always received beautifully wrapped gifts from the men I dated. If the man can’t, most stores these days offer gift wrapping. If someone doesn’t wrap a gift for me, I consider them low value and not worth the effort. This also applies to my female friends as well. I always give very nice thoughtful and expensive gifts because I was taught to always give my best. It goes both ways ☺️
This is true. My first bf didn't know how to wrap gifts, but on Christmas he gave me a beautifully wrapped gift (mind you, the gift was a book that I really wanted to read and he even chose a wrap paper with a design he knew I would like). Later he told me that he spent a significant amount of time on Youtube, watching tutorials on how to wrap a gift properly. There's literally no excuse, if a clueless and clumsy teenage boy could figure out how to do something so simple, grown ass men can do as much too.
It all comes down to the same thing we always say: if he wanted to, he would.
My dad was the expert gift wrapper in my home. He was an engineer and seemed to enjoy doing it perfectly. He even had a rule to try and use as little tape as possible. I remember him teaching me how but unfortunately I did not inherit his wrapping skills lol.
Totally true! I’ve never reflected on it like this before.
I’m more of a “put it in a gift bag with some tissue paper and a nice ribbon and call it a day” person. Wrapping gifts is a pain in the ass if the gift is oddly-shaped, or there are cats roaming about. Sometimes I’ll leave it in the store bag if it’s an overseas store, or a very fancy one (and has nice bags, that are meant to hold gifts—think Tiffany’s signature packaging). I’d be fine with a man getting a nice gift bag, or getting it wrapped at the store. I’ve known several men who are more impressed with their own skills than they should be, and I’d rather they get something done professionally than attempt it themselves if the end results are only gonna be average, but they’ll want praise for it like they did something extraordinary. I’m thinking of a guy I dated in college who drew a card for me, instead of simply buying one. The front had a stupid sketch of a girl in a bonnet and prairie dress kissing a boy in a baseball cap (because facial profiles are hard to draw), and on the inside he wrote “I’ve never been much good at buying cards…” in pencil. He clearly wanted praise for his artwork and originality, but all I could think was “you had one job. You’re not a child. Buy a fucking card.” Did he put effort into it? Sure. But I would have been more impressed with a man who just bought an appropriate gift/card like a regular person, and didn’t try to make it about himself.
You know, I always try my very best to wrap gifts, I go slowly and I watch videos, but I can never get it right, it always looks so crinkly and sloppy. :( I don't know what it is or what I do wrong, especially cause I'm very good at other artistic things.... So I'm willing to give a little leeway to others if they are bad at it, or if they just throw it in a nice bag and give it that way. I agree it's insulting if they just hand you the gift in a plastic or grocery store bag though, which seems to be the standard for most men. FFS, doesn't that amount of low effort overshadow the gift-giving experience for them?! Also, I wanted to share this video I saw the other day, I thought it was pretty cool! I would like to try this technique out next time!
My brother used to bring all of his purchased presents (gifts to me and gifts to others) to me for wrapping! I was such a dummy, lol. Eventually I wised up and haven't done this for him in years.
I don't wrap gifts either. That said, Ive only ever received one unwrapped gift.
It was a brand new pair of black patent Louboutin So Kates. And the man felt the Louboutin box was sexy enough as is. He wasnt wrong.
Otherwise, they come wrapped by the store or in a lovely giftbag with colorful wrapping paper.
I hate gift wrapping and my boyfriend does a better job at meticulous stuff like this. I usually opt for a simple bag because I'm shit at wrapping and believe me, I've tried. So I actually agree that one shouldn't break their back over this if they're just no good at it. I wouldn't hold it over someone's head if they didn't wrap a gift, and I've received unwrapped/bagged gifts from lots women as well. If the gift itself is thoughtful and personal, I don't consider it low effort. But yeah, most men suck at gift giving in general and will try to play it off, so I get what you're saying.
Well, I'd say to me it depends on who's giving the gift. Someone trying to impress me? Totally. Friends? Not too bothered if I get a good sense of mystery. I think it's more important to observe how they act about giving the gift, rather than how it's presented (Of course the gift matters as I'd be pissed if someone gave me a half assed one regardless of price. Especially with how vocal I am about liking art and whatnot).