anecdata

And if the thing she was thinking of acquiring didn't have a home or she couldn't make one, she didn't acquire it.

This just feels like konmari before konmari was a thing! I love it. It is devious in its simplicity.

Maybe it depends on the family situation, though. I am pretty sure my sister's MIL is very consumer-oriented and she likes expensive, fancy shit and will get pissy if it's not as fancy as she thinks my sister and her husband can afford. Which is. A struggle. And I know that a pair of my friends here have Major struggle accepting gifts of 'no it's your birthday we're fuckin' paying for you?? what??' because they're so used to being self-sufficient that accepting gifts at all is vaguely upsetting? So. I don't know! :D

Definitely. I relate to this a whole lot. It is difficult to allow one's self to feel obligation if you've been mostly self-sufficient.