Sell the kettle on ebay and donate the money. No, seriously, this is a bitch move. Why completely ignore someone's wish, give them something completely unrelated and less thoughtful, when the wish wasn't financially unreasonable or in another way unrealistic? And before the "be grateful you got anything, the poor kids in Nigeria don't even have food" comments start rolling in: Yeah, getting a kettle is better than nothing. Not getting something she asked for, which needn't be more expensive than a kettle, being dismissed with a statement like 'this isn't a proper present for you' and then getting a piece of household equipment isn't exactly great though. If the mother had said she didn't agree with the goals of this particular charity or whatever, I'd said 'fine', but this reason of dismissal is just.... I don't know. Not nice. And buying something the family needs anyway and disguising it as a gift isn't exactly loving and thoughtful either. But maybe that's just me. If you lived on your own, fine, but ... yeah, not like this I guess.

wow. all the tea you want now lol