Jen and her husband were on their 70s, as they haf five grandchildren. Three of them were women and two of them were men. They were ready for their grandkids, whenever they needed them.
Their youngest one, Eloise got married recently, and as it was their tradition, after the wedding the grandparents would buy the cheapest item on the wedding registry, and would give them $40,000.
As they wanted their grandchildren to keep it as a secret, they were the only ones who were aware of the tradition. Until now everyone had kept their secrets.
But their granddaughter Eloise accused them with being cheap. “Seriously, Grandma? I just got your gift. An air fryer? That’s the cheapest thing you could find on my registry!” She said when Jen called her.
As Jen was thinking that it was useful, she told Eloise that. “Useful? Come on, you know you can do better than that. Everyone knows you have the money. I just can’t believe you’d be this cheap with me. It’s embarrassing.” Was Eloise’s response.
As Jen had enough, “Yes, you’re right. We are cheap, old, and useless. The only thing you DIDN’T know is that the day before the wedding, we were going to gift you a check for $40,000.” She said.
As the argument got heated, “No, it’s clear. You just don’t love me enough to show it. You know how much pressure I’m under with the wedding. And then, this? It’s like you don’t even care,” Eloise said and hung up.
Then they decided not to give the money to Eloise, and after a week later she called again after she learned that they truly gave $40,000 to every grandchild.
“I just found out that it’s true you gave the money to everyone else when they got married. Why didn’t I get anything?” She asked.
“We felt after your reaction to the wedding gift, it wasn’t right to go ahead and gift you the money.” The grandparents said.
“So, you’re punishing me? Is that it? Because I was upset about an air fryer?” Eloise pleaded.
“It wasn’t about the air fryer, Eloise. It was how you spoke to us, the disrespect. That’s not something we expected or can support,” Jen responded.
“But that’s so unfair! I was stressed, Grandma. Planning a wedding is hard, and I just snapped. I didn’t mean any of it.” Eloise said, as she was in tears.
“We understand that it’s a stressful time, but actions and words have consequences. We hoped you’d understand the value of family and love over material things.” Eloise said. “But you don’t understand! Can’t we just forget all this happened? I need that money, Grandma.”
Then Eloise threatened not to attending to Christmas, and said that they were excluding her. Jen said, “We love you very much. This has nothing to do with cutting you off. We just hope you’ll reflect on this and understand why we made our decision.”
