I know some of you think I'm totally unappreciative of my mother's "gift" to Lauren. Here's why I don't think so..

Honestly, it would have been nicer for my mom to not have gotten Lauren anything. My mother is VERY cheap, and doesn't really put a whole lot of thought into most of presents she buys people.. except maybe when it comes to her mother. (Basically every single item she has gotten Lauren has been used or from the 99 cent store). She and my step-dad most likely went to the 99 cent store, and bought the lunch box.. and a bunch of general stuff to put inside. Since Lauren would be one of the kids there, they made her up a box, too (Oh sure, it was nice of them to include her, but still. You don't give a one year old toys that are hazardous to their health). The only thing related to that box specific to a baby was the book taped to the outside.

Believe me.. my mom is the queen of cheap and thoughtless. We used to eat from mystery cans (with no labels) because she didn't want to go grocery shopping. I had to steal toilet paper from school. Our meals out to eat were either 99 cent taco night at Del Taco (she'd buy 6 tacos, and she, my sister, and I would each get 2). If we went out to a restaurant, we could never order anything off the menu- except for appetizers. It was a big deal to hand my sister and I a $20 ($10 each), and tell us to go spend it on clothes at the thrift store. All this while she got her regular manicures and carwashes, had her teeth fixed, bought jewelry (her favorite past time), etc. She made me pay for half of my first pair of glasses, when I was in the 6th grade. She had insurance when it came time to me getting braces, but she refused to pay for any of it- she made my dad do it, and he had NO insurance (so it cost about $3,500, and he had to sell most of his band equipment to pay for just the down payment itself). When I was sick for months with Bronchitis, she wouldn't take me to the dr. She told me to have my dad take me to County (since he didn't have insurance). She only took us kids to the doctor when the school forced her to. She'd go out to eat and leave my sister at home all alone with no food in the house.

I dunno.. you say all you want that "it's the thought that counts", but when there's no thought behind the gift, does it still count?