This brother and sister appreciate their family friend’s thoughtful gifts but dread the annual delivery of stale, flavorless cookies.

They want to stop the cycle but fear it might hurt her feelings.

Read on for the story.

WIBTA if I told a family friend that we don’t want Cookies as a gift for Christmas anymore?

WIBTA if I told a family friend that we don’t want cookies as a gift for Christmas anymore?

Context, my brother and I (30s M and F) live together and we don’t have our parents left because they both passed within our lifetime.

One of our parents had a best friend who we will call, Emily (60s F).

Emily has been a wonderful family friend to my brother and me ever since we were kids. And she’s become like a second mother to us.

Well, if you’re not crumbling under the pressure, it’s probably fine!

However, she’s sent us cookies for the last few years as Christmas gifts.

And these aren’t homemade cookies, these are cookies from some catalog that, to be honest taste like cardboard.

And as a result, we don’t eat them and they expire to the point where they become inedible because they’re so stale.

And for me, I truly hate wasting food because it could’ve gone to people who are struggling to eat.

I’ve tried to donate the cookies as soon as possible many times before, but our schedules get in the way of everything along with Holiday hours as soon as we get the gift.

So many areas start either closing too early for us, or some events prevent us from donating so there’s a very small time frame in which the cookies can be donated.

So, cookies that are both stale and guilt-trippy—truly the gift that keeps on giving…in all the wrong ways.

So as a result my brother and I concluded, we have to tell Emily that while we appreciate the thought and all, we don’t want any more of these cookies for Christmas especially because we don’t eat them.

We feel bad for Emily because she spends her hard-earned money on a gift that goes to waste every year.

However, here’s where I may be TA.

I talked to my therapist about this and she told me, “But it’s usually the thought that counts you might be hurting her feelings if you tell her.”

Now to clarify we’re not going to ask for another gift or anything, we just don’t want her to waste all of her money on stuff we don’t even eat.

Trying to save her wallet, but might end up breaking her heart—tough choice.

We don’t even mind not getting a gift, we just don’t want the cookies anymore because they just go to waste, they taste awful, and we can’t even find the time to donate them.

So Reddit WIBTA for telling Emily in a polite manner that we don’t want any more cookies for Christmas anymore?

They just want to avoid more waste, but should they risk the awkwardness of being honest?

Reddit says no. No they should not.

This person says to just say thank you and nothing else.

This person is in the same boat…but would NEVER do this.

This person has a lot of valid questions.

Trying to be kind without crushing her cookie-loving spirit—what’s the sweet spot?

If you can’t say anything nice…

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.