Definition: Given a real-life anecdote of a complex ethical situation, generate a suitable title that describes the main event/root cause of the situation. Imagine that the given text is a social media post, and you have to write the title of the post, so the users can decide to read the main text or not.
Input: For a lot of people, gift-giving can be stressful and an unfortunate factor of the holidays that they simply have to put up with. For other people, Christmas becomes the Gift Olympics and they spend more than half the year prepping for it. I am definitely part of the latter group. I revel in the hunt for the perfect gift. I spend most of November hunched over a laptop, cackling into the screen like a Christmas goblin as I search for presents. 

That being said, I never expect my friends and loved ones to escalate to the mania-like state I achieve around their birthdays and holidays. My family has known about my tendencies since I was a toddler and encouraged me to express my love for them in that way, because it made me happy. I try not to drown my friends in gifts, as they may feel pushed to reciprocate equally. But when it comes to my family, there are no holds barred. 

My brother is my only sibling. He’s 22, finishing college with a vague plan of what he wants to do with his life, and works almost every weekend at the same job he’s had since he was 16. Most of his money goes towards paying for school, and aside from the occasional outing with his friends, he doesn’t splurge on anything. I enjoy spoiling him because of this as well. In the past, I would usually buy presents for our parents and he would add his name to the card, sometimes giving me money to contribute. He has been known to go get presents for people on his own, but usually requires prodding to do so. 

Last year I moved out of the house, but within a distance that can easily be commuted for a day trip. While this is not necessarily relevant to the story, his brief visit to my house started to indicate to me that any efforts I make for him would be met with indifference. I offered to host him and several of his friends for a night. In summary, I took them out, wined and dined all of them on my dime, smoked them up at my house, only to have all of them completely ignore me and cut me out of the evening entirely. They didn’t even notice when I finally left and just went to bed. After that, not a peep of thanks from him for doing any of it. 

And then radio silence on my birthday. I can understand not being able to afford a gift, but Facebook literally reminds you when people have birthdays. I brought this up to my mom when she called later that week, and she expressed dismay because she had texted him the night before reminding him about my birthday and to give me a call. 

And finally, Christmas. I was hosting on my family at my own place for the very first time. Very stressed and overworked at the time, but I pulled it together. He came with my parents, did not get gifts for anyone that year or even cards, and did not thank anyone for the things they gave him. Not even a follow-up, “hey, I really appreciate the thing you got me,” text. I was just hoping for the bare minimum, at this point. 

So am I the asshole for just wanting to cut him off of the gift list and spare myself the disappointment? It feels petty, like maybe my raging enthusiasm birthdays and holidays is clouding my judgement. I am the older sibling and want to be the example of how to act, but it’s hurtful to have him continually ignore something that’s always been important to me. 



not wanting to give my brother birthday or Christmas presents