I stopped buying actual gifts for my daughter and started sending only money and gift cards to specific places or items that she requested specifically.

What she used to do was to say “oh thank you it’s so great” but then I’ll never see it so I started asking whatever happened to the item and she’d say it was wrong size or something she couldn’t use but didn’t want to hurt my feelings. So she’d pretend she liked it and then ended up giving it away or something. Well her fear of hurting me hurt my wallet! I wasted money on gifts she could not use!

Now it works out nicely as she buys what she likes with money I send and sends me a picture. Stop buying stuff. Send money or gift cards.

On the other hand. They like your gifts, they just use it strategically. It’s just how they do things. We can’t control other people but we control ourselves. So you can stop buying gifts or start sending money instead or you just accept that they have their own ways of receiving gift and stop taking it personaly.