u/RockosModernLifeFan

I won't go into too much detail, it goes a bit deeper than this, but:

Growing up, my family would buy/choose gifts and write birthday/christmas cards for family members (some of whom I hadn't met or didn't like) on my behalf. They would include their own money and say it was from me. I did not have my own money for most of my childhood, and when I did gain it, they still spent their money instead of mine. When my relationship with my now-estranged dad started to strain as a late-teen, my mum would continue to write cards for him from me without consent and display those cards in the window.

Is this normal? I've never really questioned it, but after growing up a bit, I've wondered if it impacted me somehow - I have a tendency to view gifts and kindhearted gestures by others as insincere or laden with ulterior motives on principle and do not celebrate any legitimate holidays including my own birthday. From my adult perspective, this reads as forgery and theft.