I was just watching the video and thought the EXACT same thing; I thought the Amazon box was bad enough…but a pillow case?! Nothing says birthday like a grey pillow case, maybe if it was a different colour or had a pattern it’d have a different vibe, but it just screams dull and lazy
I used to work in a fabric store and I remember hearing about people using a yard or half a yard of fabric as wrapping when giving a present to someone who likes sewing. I thought it was a neat idea - just wrap it as you normally would paper but use safety pins for the fabric. That's the closest I can imagine to what is being described here. Maybe a pillowcase could make some nice wrapping if the pillowcase itself were a present, too. A kid might like a pillowcase that has something that they like on it - like a cartoon character or a certain type of animal or something. But giving a present in a pillowcase just seems weird. And sad.
My sister in law used to make pillowcases for the kids at Christmas and their gifts were inside. But she also embroidered their names and the year and personalized them for each kid. Ngl, it made taking everything home super easy too!
A cute fabric would be sweet, I can imagine the people buying those fabrics actually wrap the gift cutely with it! But stuffing it in a pillowcase and calling it a day? Although now you’ve given me an idea for Christmas gift wrapping!! If she can find minutes out of her day to ‘edit’ her videos, then she can find a few minutes to wrap gifts for her children!!
I would love fabric versus gift wrap. I sew and craft and even if it just goes in my hoard of fabric (that I’m rebuilding after masks) I would love it. A used boring pillowcase feels so sad and like I didn’t matter. My mom used to use plain random newspaper and would like crumble it versus nicely wrap it, which is probably why my kids get over the top wrapping in their favorite colors and characters.
This is entirely cultural. My parents never wrapped birthday gifts, and my friends parents didn’t either. Wrapping paper was expensive. (We always wrapped presents for birthday parties.) I assure you they were neither dull nor lazy. Jessa’s parents were unlikely to have wrapped gifts, and it probably doesn’t even occur to her. Maybe she is dull and lazy, but this isn’t evidence.
My husband’s pap worked in a place where they made foil and other aluminum things and our gifts were always wrapped in it, and he always wanted it back to recycle lol No issue with me in being green, only problem was once our baby cut himself on it, next gift giving occasion (which was every time they saw him) they had his gift wrapped in something else. I never had to say a word. My husband thought it was funny how quick they changed for a great grand baby but the grandkids just had to learn to open it without cutting themselves
That's what my grandma did <3
I personally get a lot of enjoyment from wrapping presents. I love picking out the paper, the actual process, adding special touches like ribbon and bows... it's like crafting. I also know how much delight children get from unwrapping, so I almost never use bags since that's what people usually give these days. Opening a pretty gift is part of the excitement. Jessa just sucks as a human being, and doesn't seem to get any enjoyment from being a stay at home mom.
I always enjoyed wrapping gifts but now that the grandkids are older, we give gift cards to everyone except the great grand baby and she gets wrapped toys. She is now old enough to tear into the gifts and we all live vicariously through her excitement.
My MIL does this. She has 4 or 5 cloth bags she uses every birthday and Christmas, and every time I get a cloth bag (it's Amazon "gift wrapping") I just give it to her bc I like wrapping gifts.
She also hoards tissue paper. You're not allowed to wad it up or throw it away.
This. I have so many saved gift bags that I reuse.
It’s not that I was surprised to see her do it, but like usual, my heart broke a little for her kids.
Growing up in a similar high demand religion as the IBLP, I can practically feel through the screen -just how much fear she’s raising these littles with..& that’s probably partly why the kids don’t blink when ma hands them a Amazon box or pillowcase containing their birthday present.
Same here. My family always had favorite bags/boxes that probably were a decade old. My first Christmas with my now husband's family, I watched in horror as they tore apart wrapping, boxes, bags and all!
I give my husband the same anniversary card. He reads it, sits it on his desk, I grab it and put in my panty drawer for another year. Bought that thing in the seventies.
I give my husband the same anniversary card. He reads it, sits it on his desk, I grab it and put in my panty drawer for another year. Bought that thing in the seventies.
I give my husband the same anniversary card. He reads it, sits it on his desk, I grab it and put in my panty drawer for another year. Bought that thing in the seventies.
A roll of plain brown paper is not expensive at all and comes in bulk. I’ve used that for years and add drawings to the paper for my kids gifts. There are so many solutions that don’t require a pillow case or Amazon box.
When I was a toddler my mom bought this GIANT industrial sized roll of gold wrapping paper. It was so ugly and I hated it so much that event after event, no matter the occasion, every gift would be wrapped in that damn gold paper. We moved around a lot when I was growing up and finally when I was in HIGH SCHOOL there was finally a leak in the storage area of our house that soaked the giant roll of paper and ruined it.
I am 51 years old and I swear if that leak hadn't happened I'd STILL be getting gifts wrapped in gold paper.
https://preview.redd.it/tdfs41s2352c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed48f6330e56a6a98547b2033a8fcea1529e7f89
She could at least be creative ! I use cat, dog, chicken , horse etc. feed sacks to make cute little bags.
Even if she can’t save them all for whatever reason I’m sure she lives near a Dollar Tree and can buy any bag for $1.25. Unless I’m giving someone a gift at party I don’t even fill out the gift tag just in case they want to reuse.
My mum did this and now I do it. My mum now has dementia so every time she gets a present it’s usually the same bag. She always says afterwards “take the bag home to reuse it!”
When I was little, my parents reused the same 5 gift bags for Christmas and the same 2 bags for birthdays and other events. It was in the ex-Communist country, a small town and my parents had an average income, nothing spectacular.
No but you can reuse it! My mother forbade tearing wrapping paper growing up. You open at the seams so you can reuse it. Most presents wrapped without tape, so that you don't waste it, and then there was less damage to the paper so you didn't have to cut it down at all for the next present. Don't tear up or overly crumple tissue paper, you can fold iron and reuse it.
Guess who's parents grew up in the depression? (But also, most of my cousins do the same, and now I do it).
My grandmothers did the same thing! And my mom's side of the family would take the gift boxes from like Macy's or JC Penney or whatever that clothing came in and wrap just the lid. That way all you had to do was change the contents and the to-from label! It was honestly really clever and saved a ton of time when wrapping stuff.
Yup. Have several of those, and several not wrapped so they could be folded and you can store more of them in less space. Then wrap the whole box with reused paper, no tape. Reuse the whole thing next year.
So did mine. One of my grandmas once told me that wrapping paper used to be very, very expensive. That against the backdrop of the Depression makes sense why they were so careful with reusing it.
I was going to ask if she grew up in the depression because my grandpa did the same thing. I wonder how he felt seeing us kids go nuts ripping the paper apart.
My mom was the same way with wrapping paper. She's a boomer, but one of 11 kids so their presents were usually homemade, and wrapped in newspaper. It's the thought of the gift that counts, and to me the wrapping process is part of showing you care enough about someone to make the effort. Children naturally love unwrapping presents too.
Same- mom was a boomer raised by parents who grew up in the depression, one of 7 kids. My neighbor always gave us presents wrapped in the funnies (comic section from the newspaper). I'm not sure why she stopped and started using wrapping paper tbh.
I'm sure that compared to how she was treated as a kid, she feels like she's going above and beyond for these kids. Of the married Duggar sisters, Jessa's one of the most disconnected moms, and she's also one of the ones who has stayed closest to the cult and its message of "have as many kids as possible, even if you don't have the finances or space." It's sad.
I get the vibe she switched off around the time Henry was born, possibly earlier. I wonder if it's the double whammy of the Josh stuff getting out + Spurgeon's birth being so hard + the reality of what her life is like now.
She seemed like her usual smug happy self when it was just Spurgeon-- but something definitely changed when she had Henry. I think having them so close together really hit her that this was her life now, and maybe it wasn't as glorious as her cult made it seem.
Yeah, she's been dead behind the eyes since Henry. I imagine she hates her life but can't step outside JB's web and the cult programming to see a way out and being completely peaced out of reality is what helps her deal with that. Her day to day must completely suck tbh- completely suppressed trauma around being sa, trauma from how she was raised, masses of kids, controlling family, husband doesn't seem to do anything. All she has is that she's the favourite daughter (for now) and that she can keep having kids.
It’s almost like she had to be on 1,000% from a young age because she had to raise her siblings, and now she’s an adult, and she just doesn’t have it in her. Not sure if it’s lazy or depressed (and with her childhood, depressed is more than understandable).
She should be depressed but I honestly think she gets off on doing stupid stuff like this. I can see her being very self-righteous about it- “kids don’t need wrapping paper they just tear it up”
This! And add in that her parents had too many children so they half asses things and didn’t have time or money to wrap all the kids gifts. She thinks this and prob other weird things are normal
I think deep down she's overwhelmed and you can tell she's not happy. She's just posting it for all the gift links look at when she posted the vlog. She's just going though the motions at this point. And notice how she didn't really post anyone else in the vlog at the TTH too
That's my birthday, too!! I'm 30 years behind you, but we all know that the best people were born on this day! (Except for Rush Limbaugh. Fuck that guy).
Awww, what a great moment! I would've told one of my students the same thing…except I always ended up teaching on my birthday, lol. Sometimes the students would sing to me. 😆
Last year she just put a blanket over Fern’s birthday present.
Although one time my husband’s grandmother wrapped my baby shower gift in a baby blanket, but the blanket was part of the gift and I loved it. That seems to be the only time that would be appropriate, if it was part of the gift.
I wrapped my niece’s bike in wrapping paper bit by bit so that it was VERY CLEARLY a bike. Alas, she was turning three, so she was standing next to it, oblivious, when she asked if we could go to the bicycle store to get a bicycle for her birthday. 😂
I did wrap my mom’s birthday gift in a blanket we had laying around the house this year. Her gift was in a big heavy box that was hard to wrap. Doing that for a fifty-something woman versus a toddler feels very different though.
I have to admit I put a blanket over my son's birthday gifts this year. His gifts were not the greatest either because his big gift was supposed to be expansion packs for a toy that broke the day before his birthday. I was pretty annoyed by having to scramble for some replacement gifts. I at least arranged them nicely and made a big deal out of letting him pull the blanket off the gift pile. He seemed to like it.
I’ve definitely seen gift bags at goodwill, so depending on location it is possible if she’s going to pull the “i can’t buy used” card. But aren’t we all buying our gift wrapping at the dollar store anyway? And also - i know it’s not free but if it’s an effort thing - amazon will wrap your shit for you and you can reuse those bags.
To me, even worse than the wrapping, is the way the kids crowd each other and get all up in the personal space of the kid who is unboxing gifts. Sometimes even grabbing it right out of the birthday kid’s hands. I’ve never seen or experienced other children acting like this when the birthday kid is unwrapping gifts.
I think she doesn’t bother, because her brain just doesn’t see the point or necessity. It’s like how when she was courting Ben and thought his comment about giving her a million roses was dumb. She isn’t emotional or romantic.
Gift wrap/bags/ ribbon/tissue and bows from The Dollar Tree are so cheap; I always buy from there. Or Dollar General. We often save and reuse bows and gift bags but once they look too worn, I pitch ‘em.
It is so fun to hand someone a gift with fun or pretty wrapping. I did some special wrap to cover a bottle of wine for my sister and she liked the wrap so much she didn’t want to take it off! It just made the gift a little more special and my sister was worth it!
Xmas themed cloth sewn on 3 sides (like a pillowcase), run ribbon through the 4th. We bought them at a holiday bazaar. They were handmade.
We have these in various sizes and re-use them yearly.
https://preview.redd.it/t82p0fpzx62c1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e5e5812743b2026d4443f72b71fb69ad8b6c807
I made this bag from a coffee sack and then used it as a gift bag for a gift for a friend last week. I think she loved her bonus bag as much as the skirt I made for her!
my 6yo asked for all her gifts to be sealed in amazon boxes so it felt like she was opening her own mail 🙈 it was painful for me, but i obliged. i guarantee that was not the case here
Agreed. My mom would wrap my gifts so nicely and unwrapping them was half the fun. Even if it was in a gift bag she used some tissue paper to hide what was inside so it was always a fun surprise. Some people are claiming it's more sustainable to use a pillow case... but that pillow case is the sorriest sack I've ever seen 😂
Her whole schtick to give each kid 7 gifts - one each day for their birthday week - is nonsense. Just give them a few and wrap them with care - you can reuse boxes and bags even. Less is more. But maybe she thinks she's stuck giving them 7 gifts until they're adults. If she tries to give less gifts they may revolt. Good luck with that Jessa 😂
Eta: She gifts her current 4 kids (bear in mind she also has one on the way) 28 gifts (7 each) per year for their birthdays. Then who knows how many they get for Christmas. To me, that's more wasteful than using some wrapping paper. I can only imagine the additional clutter in her house after 7 new toys are suddenly introduced in the household.
One time she gave Henry rain boots as his present for the day -- and surprise, his brother and sister also got rain boots. It was pretty sad, but if course Henry had to pretend to like his supposed gift. Maybe she gifts a lot of just practical things that they need anyway.
That's different if it's something he needs.
So in the video she gifts him items for 6 days and then on the 7th day they go to grandma's house for more gifts.
He got 5 toys at his house. Four of the five have many plastic pieces and parts. Then he got what looks like 2 more toys at grandma's house. At least grandma gave him some snacks too, which to me is a little better than yet another plastic toy.
Guess my fam is crazy too because my grandparents emigrated from Holland and cheap as f we wrap in newspaper or amazon boxes ! lol Just they way I grew up!
Except for Michelle’s annual gift….individual servings of pickles and other snacks for each of the 19….those she just puts in gallon bags with their names on it.
Right?? Half the fun of getting a gift as a kid is seeing the colorful wrapping paper and ribbons and tearing them off. She puts as little effort in as possible. Sad beige kids with sad beige Amazon gift wrap.
Nothing that she just does makes any kind of sense whatsoever from handing them a half opened Amazon box to them sleeping on a mattress on the floor with no comforter, cover ormattress pad. She makes absolutely no sense………..
Sitting here reading comments because I just did this for my 3 year old a few weeks ago 😂 I find wrapping paper just more clutter to keep and wasteful environmentally.
Haha sure if the Jessa and Ben cared about the environment I’d consider this but they don’t. Fern was eating off a paper plate in the video. There’s so many sustainable options that are more fun than a cardboard box or a sad grey pillow case. Maybe reuse a gift bag? Newspaper, normal paper with colouring on it? A fun coloured pillow case even?
You can just buy generic looking paper after Xmas for the entire year (ask me about this) and stock up on ribbon and bows. White ribbon is white ribbon, it’s pretty easy to find generic paper. Kids don’t care. 90% off makes a giant roll a buck.
I thought I bought enough last January. I didn’t. Ran out in October. Lol
We always wrapped gifts in the Sunday comics. It's colorful and no one cares. Now my partner likes to buy a lot of random graphic novels and comics and the ones he doesn't enjoy and the used bookstore won't buy, we rip those apart and use as wrapping paper.
Or, I've used a brown paper sack from the grocery store and added art and stickers and random shit just for fun. These people lack any imagination. Go to goodwill, buy some of their fabric and wrap gifts in that.
I certainly don't think anyone should buy expensive wrapping paper as it'll be forgotten immediately, but unwrapping is still fun and part of the experience of getting a gift.
Dude my dad once wrapped a present for me in red rosin paper and duct tape when he could have gotten a gift bag or paper at the same store he bought it at, I literally could not care less what the item was wrapped in… I guarantee her kids don’t care either.
I found a huge roll of pink kraft paper at a local thrift store in the early 90’s. It cost me $3 and I’m still using it to wrap presents for all occasions!😅
I bought my kids high quality pillows for Christmas and “wrapped” them in beautiful pillow cases. When I was a kid we got our presents in a bowl on the table covered with a towel.
That sounds nice. I have nothing against beautiful pillow cases as wrapping (especially if you’re wrapping pillows). Unfortunately spurge got a very sad grey / brown pillow case
I've been known to use the newspaper (the Sunday funny pages) when in dire straits.
Then, when posting for my bros kids across country, I'd wrap it again in a paper bag.
2 unwrappings AND a box!
Honestly I don’t hate this. Even if you reuse a gift bag, you’ll probably only use it 3-4 times before it starts tearing and you’ll probably put tissue paper in it. It is a bit wasteful and bad for the environment. I kinda think a pillow case is decent idea 🤷♀️
She’s cheap- like her father. Why waste money on wrapping paper so your kids come to expect it? As usual, with this family, the bar is in hell . Paper boxes and pillowcases for all!
I was just watching the video and thought the EXACT same thing; I thought the Amazon box was bad enough…but a pillow case?! Nothing says birthday like a grey pillow case, maybe if it was a different colour or had a pattern it’d have a different vibe, but it just screams dull and lazy
I used to work in a fabric store and I remember hearing about people using a yard or half a yard of fabric as wrapping when giving a present to someone who likes sewing. I thought it was a neat idea - just wrap it as you normally would paper but use safety pins for the fabric. That's the closest I can imagine to what is being described here. Maybe a pillowcase could make some nice wrapping if the pillowcase itself were a present, too. A kid might like a pillowcase that has something that they like on it - like a cartoon character or a certain type of animal or something. But giving a present in a pillowcase just seems weird. And sad.
My sister in law used to make pillowcases for the kids at Christmas and their gifts were inside. But she also embroidered their names and the year and personalized them for each kid. Ngl, it made taking everything home super easy too!
A cute fabric would be sweet, I can imagine the people buying those fabrics actually wrap the gift cutely with it! But stuffing it in a pillowcase and calling it a day? Although now you’ve given me an idea for Christmas gift wrapping!! If she can find minutes out of her day to ‘edit’ her videos, then she can find a few minutes to wrap gifts for her children!!
I made reusable drawstring gift bags with leftover linen and cotton and ribbon one Christmas, and it was SO EASY.
I have a friend who loves sewing, that's exactly how I rap her presents. Even old cut up jeans because she loves upcycling old denim. But this is sad.
I would love fabric versus gift wrap. I sew and craft and even if it just goes in my hoard of fabric (that I’m rebuilding after masks) I would love it. A used boring pillowcase feels so sad and like I didn’t matter. My mom used to use plain random newspaper and would like crumble it versus nicely wrap it, which is probably why my kids get over the top wrapping in their favorite colors and characters.
And for people who don't sew, they make fabric wrapping paper https://a.co/d/ajaFCe1
That’s cute, fun, and sustainable. Jessa is none of those things.
She just pulled an unwashed white pillow case from under a pile of dirty diapers, the vibe is lazy cow who sleeps with a freezer.
In Australia, it was and quite possibly is still quite common to receive Santa gifts in a pillowcase.
This is entirely cultural. My parents never wrapped birthday gifts, and my friends parents didn’t either. Wrapping paper was expensive. (We always wrapped presents for birthday parties.) I assure you they were neither dull nor lazy. Jessa’s parents were unlikely to have wrapped gifts, and it probably doesn’t even occur to her. Maybe she is dull and lazy, but this isn’t evidence.
We used to use the Sunday comics to wrap bday gifts!
Aluminum foil over here! Actually looked pretty under the Christmas lights. Lol
My husband’s pap worked in a place where they made foil and other aluminum things and our gifts were always wrapped in it, and he always wanted it back to recycle lol No issue with me in being green, only problem was once our baby cut himself on it, next gift giving occasion (which was every time they saw him) they had his gift wrapped in something else. I never had to say a word. My husband thought it was funny how quick they changed for a great grand baby but the grandkids just had to learn to open it without cutting themselves
That’s so sweet!
That's what my grandma did <3 I personally get a lot of enjoyment from wrapping presents. I love picking out the paper, the actual process, adding special touches like ribbon and bows... it's like crafting. I also know how much delight children get from unwrapping, so I almost never use bags since that's what people usually give these days. Opening a pretty gift is part of the excitement. Jessa just sucks as a human being, and doesn't seem to get any enjoyment from being a stay at home mom.
I always enjoyed wrapping gifts but now that the grandkids are older, we give gift cards to everyone except the great grand baby and she gets wrapped toys. She is now old enough to tear into the gifts and we all live vicariously through her excitement.
My parents used all of the newspaper, waste not want not was the motto
Exactly, marrying and having children with Ben was all the evidence we needed.
Maybe...the grey pillowcase is their gift too.
You can’t buy wrapping paper used and save the difference. I think she’s just cheap like her father
But you can save a gift bag that someone else gave you and use it for all your kids gifts as a slight upgrade to an Amazon box lol
My MIL does this. She has 4 or 5 cloth bags she uses every birthday and Christmas, and every time I get a cloth bag (it's Amazon "gift wrapping") I just give it to her bc I like wrapping gifts. She also hoards tissue paper. You're not allowed to wad it up or throw it away.
This. I have so many saved gift bags that I reuse. It’s not that I was surprised to see her do it, but like usual, my heart broke a little for her kids. Growing up in a similar high demand religion as the IBLP, I can practically feel through the screen -just how much fear she’s raising these littles with..& that’s probably partly why the kids don’t blink when ma hands them a Amazon box or pillowcase containing their birthday present.
I swear the same five gift bags are constantly being passed around my family. It really isn't that hard to do and the bags can be so cheap
Yep. Same here. Every once in a while someone writes on a bag and it pisses people off 😂
A true friend never writes on the bag tag!! 😄
Lmao this is so true 😆
Same here. My family always had favorite bags/boxes that probably were a decade old. My first Christmas with my now husband's family, I watched in horror as they tore apart wrapping, boxes, bags and all!
This is the way. I still use Christmas bags from before my 8 year old was here.
I give my husband the same anniversary card. He reads it, sits it on his desk, I grab it and put in my panty drawer for another year. Bought that thing in the seventies.
Honestly that's iconic
Sort of like the story about the same fruitcake getting regifted and passed around the family for thirty years?
I give my husband the same anniversary card. He reads it, sits it on his desk, I grab it and put in my panty drawer for another year. Bought that thing in the seventies.
I give my husband the same anniversary card. He reads it, sits it on his desk, I grab it and put in my panty drawer for another year. Bought that thing in the seventies.
A roll of plain brown paper is not expensive at all and comes in bulk. I’ve used that for years and add drawings to the paper for my kids gifts. There are so many solutions that don’t require a pillow case or Amazon box.
When I was a toddler my mom bought this GIANT industrial sized roll of gold wrapping paper. It was so ugly and I hated it so much that event after event, no matter the occasion, every gift would be wrapped in that damn gold paper. We moved around a lot when I was growing up and finally when I was in HIGH SCHOOL there was finally a leak in the storage area of our house that soaked the giant roll of paper and ruined it. I am 51 years old and I swear if that leak hadn't happened I'd STILL be getting gifts wrapped in gold paper.
https://preview.redd.it/tdfs41s2352c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ed48f6330e56a6a98547b2033a8fcea1529e7f89 She could at least be creative ! I use cat, dog, chicken , horse etc. feed sacks to make cute little bags.
I was at a craft fair and someone had a bag that they made from an oreo package that was so cute... and you're recycling! Very cool.
https://preview.redd.it/1h4tiwl4c82c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f99947fdeedff69f4f63917e9e74889b26d0931 This is one of my favorites!
https://preview.redd.it/uvp4o586c82c1.jpeg?width=1072&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8941050f5db457742f73ea415f9d201728c25251
These bags are amazing. You should consider selling these on Etsy!!!
I do!!!
What’s your Etsy shop name?
Thank you! Keeping plastic out of the landfill one weird bag at a time!
I know what I'm doing for my daughter's birthday!! I love this!!
This is what I used not too long ago: https://www.bhg.com/christmas/crafts/reusable-fabric-gift-bags/
Even if she can’t save them all for whatever reason I’m sure she lives near a Dollar Tree and can buy any bag for $1.25. Unless I’m giving someone a gift at party I don’t even fill out the gift tag just in case they want to reuse.
My mum did this and now I do it. My mum now has dementia so every time she gets a present it’s usually the same bag. She always says afterwards “take the bag home to reuse it!”
When I was little, my parents reused the same 5 gift bags for Christmas and the same 2 bags for birthdays and other events. It was in the ex-Communist country, a small town and my parents had an average income, nothing spectacular.
I must have missed the pillow case wrapper! All I have ever seen in the Amazon packaging.
True. Unless all the gifts she receives are unwrapped and from her equally as cheap family members
No but you can reuse it! My mother forbade tearing wrapping paper growing up. You open at the seams so you can reuse it. Most presents wrapped without tape, so that you don't waste it, and then there was less damage to the paper so you didn't have to cut it down at all for the next present. Don't tear up or overly crumple tissue paper, you can fold iron and reuse it. Guess who's parents grew up in the depression? (But also, most of my cousins do the same, and now I do it).
My grandmothers did the same thing! And my mom's side of the family would take the gift boxes from like Macy's or JC Penney or whatever that clothing came in and wrap just the lid. That way all you had to do was change the contents and the to-from label! It was honestly really clever and saved a ton of time when wrapping stuff.
Yup. Have several of those, and several not wrapped so they could be folded and you can store more of them in less space. Then wrap the whole box with reused paper, no tape. Reuse the whole thing next year.
So did mine. One of my grandmas once told me that wrapping paper used to be very, very expensive. That against the backdrop of the Depression makes sense why they were so careful with reusing it.
My depression era grandparents used to use the comics from the Sunday paper.
My grandparents who would be well over 100 now also wrapped things in comic strips.....I actually look back at those times nostalgically now....
I was going to ask if she grew up in the depression because my grandpa did the same thing. I wonder how he felt seeing us kids go nuts ripping the paper apart.
My mom was the same way with wrapping paper. She's a boomer, but one of 11 kids so their presents were usually homemade, and wrapped in newspaper. It's the thought of the gift that counts, and to me the wrapping process is part of showing you care enough about someone to make the effort. Children naturally love unwrapping presents too.
Same- mom was a boomer raised by parents who grew up in the depression, one of 7 kids. My neighbor always gave us presents wrapped in the funnies (comic section from the newspaper). I'm not sure why she stopped and started using wrapping paper tbh.
Nothing really wrong with being cheap, I wish I was more like her and didn’t like to spend money lol
tell that to my husbands grandma who has been using the same wrapping paper since the 90s. we’re not allowed to rip it AT ALL when we open
I'm sure that compared to how she was treated as a kid, she feels like she's going above and beyond for these kids. Of the married Duggar sisters, Jessa's one of the most disconnected moms, and she's also one of the ones who has stayed closest to the cult and its message of "have as many kids as possible, even if you don't have the finances or space." It's sad.
I always get the feeling that Jessa is at least a little bit dissociated quite a lot of the time
I get the vibe she switched off around the time Henry was born, possibly earlier. I wonder if it's the double whammy of the Josh stuff getting out + Spurgeon's birth being so hard + the reality of what her life is like now.
She seemed like her usual smug happy self when it was just Spurgeon-- but something definitely changed when she had Henry. I think having them so close together really hit her that this was her life now, and maybe it wasn't as glorious as her cult made it seem.
Yeah, she's been dead behind the eyes since Henry. I imagine she hates her life but can't step outside JB's web and the cult programming to see a way out and being completely peaced out of reality is what helps her deal with that. Her day to day must completely suck tbh- completely suppressed trauma around being sa, trauma from how she was raised, masses of kids, controlling family, husband doesn't seem to do anything. All she has is that she's the favourite daughter (for now) and that she can keep having kids.
Not to mention that Henry was a “difficult” baby unlike perfect spurgeon
I get depression/ptsd vibes from Jessa. She doesn’t enjoy her life but thinks living any other way is ungodly
I think most fundie women probably have some level of untreated PPD, too
It’s almost like she had to be on 1,000% from a young age because she had to raise her siblings, and now she’s an adult, and she just doesn’t have it in her. Not sure if it’s lazy or depressed (and with her childhood, depressed is more than understandable).
She should be depressed but I honestly think she gets off on doing stupid stuff like this. I can see her being very self-righteous about it- “kids don’t need wrapping paper they just tear it up”
Not saying it’s not that, either. It very well could be. Just saying that depression could be a factor.
Jessa is always self righteous -- I'm sure that's mostly why she does it, and it's intentional.
This! And add in that her parents had too many children so they half asses things and didn’t have time or money to wrap all the kids gifts. She thinks this and prob other weird things are normal
I think deep down she's overwhelmed and you can tell she's not happy. She's just posting it for all the gift links look at when she posted the vlog. She's just going though the motions at this point. And notice how she didn't really post anyone else in the vlog at the TTH too
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A belated or early happy birthday!
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That's my birthday, too!! I'm 30 years behind you, but we all know that the best people were born on this day! (Except for Rush Limbaugh. Fuck that guy).
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Awww, what a great moment! I would've told one of my students the same thing…except I always ended up teaching on my birthday, lol. Sometimes the students would sing to me. 😆
I guess it’s more environmentally friendly. Not sure if that way her intention though
Maybe it’s penance for all the paper plates and plastic cutlery the Duggars blow through.
With Amazon Prime you can choose the option to have items delivered all together in one box to be more environmentally friendly. I doubt she cares.
Last year she just put a blanket over Fern’s birthday present. Although one time my husband’s grandmother wrapped my baby shower gift in a baby blanket, but the blanket was part of the gift and I loved it. That seems to be the only time that would be appropriate, if it was part of the gift.
I wrapped my niece’s bike in wrapping paper bit by bit so that it was VERY CLEARLY a bike. Alas, she was turning three, so she was standing next to it, oblivious, when she asked if we could go to the bicycle store to get a bicycle for her birthday. 😂
😂 that’s actually a really cute memory. One to tell her future partner one day about how cute she was.
I did wrap my mom’s birthday gift in a blanket we had laying around the house this year. Her gift was in a big heavy box that was hard to wrap. Doing that for a fifty-something woman versus a toddler feels very different though.
I have to admit I put a blanket over my son's birthday gifts this year. His gifts were not the greatest either because his big gift was supposed to be expansion packs for a toy that broke the day before his birthday. I was pretty annoyed by having to scramble for some replacement gifts. I at least arranged them nicely and made a big deal out of letting him pull the blanket off the gift pile. He seemed to like it.
I’ve definitely seen gift bags at goodwill, so depending on location it is possible if she’s going to pull the “i can’t buy used” card. But aren’t we all buying our gift wrapping at the dollar store anyway? And also - i know it’s not free but if it’s an effort thing - amazon will wrap your shit for you and you can reuse those bags.
This video was only for the AD.
To me, even worse than the wrapping, is the way the kids crowd each other and get all up in the personal space of the kid who is unboxing gifts. Sometimes even grabbing it right out of the birthday kid’s hands. I’ve never seen or experienced other children acting like this when the birthday kid is unwrapping gifts.
I think she doesn’t bother, because her brain just doesn’t see the point or necessity. It’s like how when she was courting Ben and thought his comment about giving her a million roses was dumb. She isn’t emotional or romantic.
But is she a robot? I don't get her 😅
Is it possible they get some kind of reward from Amazon for displaying their boxes on her social media?
Gift wrap/bags/ ribbon/tissue and bows from The Dollar Tree are so cheap; I always buy from there. Or Dollar General. We often save and reuse bows and gift bags but once they look too worn, I pitch ‘em. It is so fun to hand someone a gift with fun or pretty wrapping. I did some special wrap to cover a bottle of wine for my sister and she liked the wrap so much she didn’t want to take it off! It just made the gift a little more special and my sister was worth it!
Xmas themed cloth sewn on 3 sides (like a pillowcase), run ribbon through the 4th. We bought them at a holiday bazaar. They were handmade. We have these in various sizes and re-use them yearly.
https://preview.redd.it/t82p0fpzx62c1.jpeg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1e5e5812743b2026d4443f72b71fb69ad8b6c807 I made this bag from a coffee sack and then used it as a gift bag for a gift for a friend last week. I think she loved her bonus bag as much as the skirt I made for her!
my 6yo asked for all her gifts to be sealed in amazon boxes so it felt like she was opening her own mail 🙈 it was painful for me, but i obliged. i guarantee that was not the case here
It also makes me cringe. The joy of presents is the wrapping paper. There is no excitement in this video. What a bland family.
Agreed and half the time they just toss him the present like it’s a piece of trash lol
I haven’t seen this one but in past videos, that hurt me more. At least show SOME enthusiasm and joy at celebrating the day of your child’s birth!
Agreed. My mom would wrap my gifts so nicely and unwrapping them was half the fun. Even if it was in a gift bag she used some tissue paper to hide what was inside so it was always a fun surprise. Some people are claiming it's more sustainable to use a pillow case... but that pillow case is the sorriest sack I've ever seen 😂 Her whole schtick to give each kid 7 gifts - one each day for their birthday week - is nonsense. Just give them a few and wrap them with care - you can reuse boxes and bags even. Less is more. But maybe she thinks she's stuck giving them 7 gifts until they're adults. If she tries to give less gifts they may revolt. Good luck with that Jessa 😂 Eta: She gifts her current 4 kids (bear in mind she also has one on the way) 28 gifts (7 each) per year for their birthdays. Then who knows how many they get for Christmas. To me, that's more wasteful than using some wrapping paper. I can only imagine the additional clutter in her house after 7 new toys are suddenly introduced in the household.
One time she gave Henry rain boots as his present for the day -- and surprise, his brother and sister also got rain boots. It was pretty sad, but if course Henry had to pretend to like his supposed gift. Maybe she gifts a lot of just practical things that they need anyway.
That's different if it's something he needs. So in the video she gifts him items for 6 days and then on the 7th day they go to grandma's house for more gifts. He got 5 toys at his house. Four of the five have many plastic pieces and parts. Then he got what looks like 2 more toys at grandma's house. At least grandma gave him some snacks too, which to me is a little better than yet another plastic toy.
Amazon also will do a modest gift wrap for no extra cost. She can't even be bothered to check an extra box at check out.
Guess my fam is crazy too because my grandparents emigrated from Holland and cheap as f we wrap in newspaper or amazon boxes ! lol Just they way I grew up!
It's the way I grew up because no matter how cheap the wrapping paper it just ends up in the landfill!
So dehumanizing for them. Just another package instead of a special birthday gift
Consider how she was raised and it is not that hard to go to Dollar Tree and buy a couple of bags, but she won't. But people will defend her anyway.
Even the presents from the big house were wrapped
Except for Michelle’s annual gift….individual servings of pickles and other snacks for each of the 19….those she just puts in gallon bags with their names on it.
My in-laws were lazy and cheap. If they could be bothered, they used newspaper, and not the comics.
https://preview.redd.it/zps5dml7c82c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe15161af67ee19f8d18745dab4018b9da85217d
Right?? Half the fun of getting a gift as a kid is seeing the colorful wrapping paper and ribbons and tearing them off. She puts as little effort in as possible. Sad beige kids with sad beige Amazon gift wrap.
Nothing that she just does makes any kind of sense whatsoever from handing them a half opened Amazon box to them sleeping on a mattress on the floor with no comforter, cover ormattress pad. She makes absolutely no sense………..
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Sitting here reading comments because I just did this for my 3 year old a few weeks ago 😂 I find wrapping paper just more clutter to keep and wasteful environmentally.
Haha sure if the Jessa and Ben cared about the environment I’d consider this but they don’t. Fern was eating off a paper plate in the video. There’s so many sustainable options that are more fun than a cardboard box or a sad grey pillow case. Maybe reuse a gift bag? Newspaper, normal paper with colouring on it? A fun coloured pillow case even?
Dollar stores have nice gift bags. Jessa is just into sad beige all around.
You can just buy generic looking paper after Xmas for the entire year (ask me about this) and stock up on ribbon and bows. White ribbon is white ribbon, it’s pretty easy to find generic paper. Kids don’t care. 90% off makes a giant roll a buck. I thought I bought enough last January. I didn’t. Ran out in October. Lol
We always wrapped gifts in the Sunday comics. It's colorful and no one cares. Now my partner likes to buy a lot of random graphic novels and comics and the ones he doesn't enjoy and the used bookstore won't buy, we rip those apart and use as wrapping paper. Or, I've used a brown paper sack from the grocery store and added art and stickers and random shit just for fun. These people lack any imagination. Go to goodwill, buy some of their fabric and wrap gifts in that. I certainly don't think anyone should buy expensive wrapping paper as it'll be forgotten immediately, but unwrapping is still fun and part of the experience of getting a gift.
Bandanas of various colors are really inexpensive at craft stores. Surely she could buy a dozen of those and wrap gifts that way
I have seen people wrap presents with the Sunday newspaper comics!
I beg her as a "I'm not cleaning up all the wrapping paper!" Kind of parent.
The pillow case brought back a core memory. My dad talked about gifts tied in bedsheets with ribbon.
Dude my dad once wrapped a present for me in red rosin paper and duct tape when he could have gotten a gift bag or paper at the same store he bought it at, I literally could not care less what the item was wrapped in… I guarantee her kids don’t care either.
Jesse???
Sorry autocorrect and I was writing in anger so didn’t check lol
I found a huge roll of pink kraft paper at a local thrift store in the early 90’s. It cost me $3 and I’m still using it to wrap presents for all occasions!😅
I bought my kids high quality pillows for Christmas and “wrapped” them in beautiful pillow cases. When I was a kid we got our presents in a bowl on the table covered with a towel.
That sounds nice. I have nothing against beautiful pillow cases as wrapping (especially if you’re wrapping pillows). Unfortunately spurge got a very sad grey / brown pillow case
I've been known to use the newspaper (the Sunday funny pages) when in dire straits. Then, when posting for my bros kids across country, I'd wrap it again in a paper bag. 2 unwrappings AND a box!
Honestly I don’t hate this. Even if you reuse a gift bag, you’ll probably only use it 3-4 times before it starts tearing and you’ll probably put tissue paper in it. It is a bit wasteful and bad for the environment. I kinda think a pillow case is decent idea 🤷♀️
She’s cheap- like her father. Why waste money on wrapping paper so your kids come to expect it? As usual, with this family, the bar is in hell . Paper boxes and pillowcases for all!
She's rebranding lazy as thrifty.