She didn't mean anything bad by it.
Not everybody is comfortable with receiving gifts from just anyone. Think about it: would you feel comfortable if your least favorite coworker rolled up to the office on your birthday with a wrapped present in hand? No, that'd be weird. When you're just a regular adult, you need a certain level of closeness with someone before buying and giving them a present, even on their birthday.
There is a whole phenomenon of parents planning their children's birthday party with "no gifts" written on the invitation. It's one of those things that makes sense if your kid has an active social life and is attending a birthday party for a different preschool classmate or soccer teammate every weekend. But if you're only attending a handful of birthday parties every year, it's kind of baffling. What kind of kid's birthday party doesn't involve the birthday boy or girl opening presents and thanking their friends for their mother's purchase of Apples to Apples? Kids shouldn't be robbed of the chance to receive gifts just because their friend's parents overschedule them!
Then there are those infamous communities who are not only uncomfortable with gifts but with celebrations of any kind. Most of us couldn't imagine a world without Christmas, Yom Kippur, Ramadan, Easter, or Rosh Hashanah, but there are communities that go through the entire year without a singular holiday for festivities. They don't even celebrate holidays that were specifically invented to sell greeting cards!
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6 months ago
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