I hate it too
I saw a card shop recently that had a massive poster in the window saying that they sell cards for your child's first days at nursery school, first school, middle school, high school, college and university... that's just taking the piss, especially the nursery one, how many nursery-age kids can read? They'll just try and eat the bloody card, it's probably got "Not suitable for children under 36 months" written on the back anyway.
My other half's family are totally convinced by this shit. Every time he sees his mum, she's nagging him to send cards to one of his many relatives for every little occasion in their lives. Soon after I saw the "first days" poster, I overheard her telling him to get a "first day at school" card for a distant step-relative he's never even met and who probably doesn't know who he is either.
Phone calls, presents, home-made cards and "blank for your own message" cards aren't good enough for this family; no, he has to buy a card and it has to be especially for that relative/occasion. "Merry Christmas" cards aren't good enough for his parents any more; we have to send "Merry Christmas Mum & Dad From Your Son & His Girlfriend" cards (I didn't even know they existed but apparently they do). We recently had to get a card for his great-grandmother's 92nd birthday, we got a regular "Happy Birthday" card and only just got away with it by keeping it hidden from his parents' view as we gave it to her, but his sister actually managed to find a "Happy 92nd Birthday Great-Gran" card somewhere (she had to - the way her parents bully her, she'd have got a bollocking if she'd sent a regular card).
When I was a kid, I was always making cards and my family seemed to like it. When I did buy them, they didn't seem to care if I added the word "Grand" to a "Mother's Day" card because the local shop didn't have "Grandparents' Day" cards. My boyfriend's lot get seriously offended if any of their kids make cards ("You stingy bastard, don't you love me enough to spend money on me?" ...yeah, never mind the expensive gift the kid just got you) or adapt ready-made ones ("Couldn't you be arsed to find the right one?").
I honestly hate to say this sort of thing but every time they complain about lacking money I find it harder and harder to feel sorry for them. Apologies for length.
(MC Toffeehammer, Sun 3 Oct 2010, 11:40, 1 reply)

"Merry Christmas Mum & Dad From Your Son & His Girlfriend" card
Bleeeugh. Exactly the kind of crap my ex-girlfriend bought.

I remember once buying a box of 40-odd Xmas cards for a couple of quid, thinking it would do us both for work, family, friends etc, then being frogmarched by her to Clintons to spend 40 bastard quid on about 8 "special" cards "for her family".
(WillI'mNot logs in twice a year, every year, Mon 4 Oct 2010, 0:37, closed)