No Gifts Requests

In a recent post a fellow mom was asking about what to do with a bunch of unopened gifts. From the sound of it, she asks for no gifts and people still bring gifts and it sounds like lots of stuff never got opened because she was overwhelmed with toys.

A lot of comments were basically saying, “My kid likes picking out gifts” or “I don’t believe in showing up empty handed” or said that by not giving all of the stuff to her kid she was stealing from them.

Why do so many people see it as being okay to ignore a stated request to not bring more stuff. Especially since it sounds like in her case, people weren’t showing up with like books or a doll but with big playsets or toys with a lot of parts and pieces?