My mother complains from time to time that I’m hard to buy for and makes me feel that it’s my responsibility for me to make it easier for her to spend money on me. This seems wrong. She shouldn’t feel under an obligation to buy presents at certain times of the year. And it’s a virtue of mine because it suggests I’m materially content without being a millionaire which is good. But can we have an institution of gift-giving without the obligation? So long as people feel disappointed at not getting something when they expected to—so long as people expect to get things at certain times—it seems not.