My Mother Humiliated My Son With an Empty PS5 Box—So I Gave Her a Christmas Gift She’ll Never Forget
The moment I saw my mother hand my son that PlayStation 5 box, I knew something was wrong. Ethan’s face lit up like Christmas morning should – pure joy, disbelief, the kind of excitement that makes a ten-year-old’s hands shake as he reaches for the gift. But Mom was smiling too widely.
That fake smile she gets when she’s about to “teach someone a lesson.”
See, this wasn’t just any Christmas morning. This was the first time in three years that my whole family was together. My sister Rachel and her twelve-year-old son Tyler had flown in from California.
My parents had been planning this gathering for months, talking about making it “extra special” for the grandkids. What I didn’t realize was that “extra special” meant something very different for each grandson. The morning started normally enough.
Coffee, cinnamon rolls, the usual chaos of wrapping paper and excited kids. Tyler opened his gifts first – he’s older, and somehow that always translated to going first in our family. A new gaming laptop.
A skateboard. Designer clothes. Cash in a card.
Each gift bigger and more expensive than the last. Tyler was polite but not overly excited – this was clearly the level of generosity he’d come to expect from Grandma Linda. Ethan watched it all with wide eyes, clutching his first small gift.
A pack of Pokemon cards. Nice, but nothing close to Tyler’s haul. Then Mom made a big show of bringing out “one more special surprise” from behind the tree.
The PS5 box. Ethan had been talking about wanting a PlayStation for months. He’d saved his allowance, done extra chores, even made a PowerPoint presentation about why he deserved one.
I’d told him maybe for his birthday, maybe if he kept his grades up. But here was Grandma, apparently making his dreams come true. “This one’s for you, sweetie,” she said, setting the box in front of Ethan with a flourish.
The whole room was watching. Dad lowered his newspaper. Rachel looked up from her phone.
Even Tyler seemed interested to see his younger cousin get something so big. Ethan carefully peeled away the wrapping paper, his hands trembling with excitement. When the PlayStation logo was revealed, he gasped.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
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