My daughter has had the same boyfriend for almost a year. He is from Mexico and has extended family here with whom he spends all his time. Knowing they were part of his holiday and would interact with my daughter, We made his family a nice fruit basket. The 10 year old and 13 year old acted hurt/mad that we did not get them individual gifts. Did my family commit a faux pas here? Please give your opinion along with any cultural perspective that you are aware of. Thanks.
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You must be a wonderful person to be concerned about the cultures of other people. From everything I know of, there are no cultural requirements of giving gifts to individuals. Giving a family gift was very thoughtful and was a gift that they could all enjoy. These children are in America and should adapt to understand that this is acceptable giving in our country. I am unsure of the particular family you are dealing with, but it is possible that since most hispanic mothers do most of the housekeeping and cooking, they may have not seen the gift as a family present, but rather one for their mother. Your daughter probably also got a gift for the boyfriend, so it probably appeared as though their brother and mother received gifts. I do know that hispanic children do have more emphasis on age-appropriate toys etc, than most children from other nationalities. an example would be a teddy bear would not be an appropriate gift for a hispanic boy over the age of about 4 years. They would see this as a "baby" gift, or one for a girl (seeing it as a doll). I would not fret over this whatsoever. I am positive the parents were probably embarrassed about how their children acted. For future ideas, a family board game or something like a gift certificate to the movies or something like that may be a more appropriate family type gift
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