I've had some opportunity to spend time with my LDR partner Blue, and it has me thinking about souvenirs. How do you feel about getting/giving them, or about partners getting them for metas while you're out together?

I always find the concept of souvenirs kind of strange. Like, "here's a thing to remind you of a vacation I went on," or something. I'm not going to get mad if someone gives one to me, but I always specifically say I don't like them and if it's some generic thing I don't need I'm tossing/donating/gifting it to someone. I'll keep a cool rock, I will not keep a fridge magnet with a city on it.

This also means I don't buy souvenirs unless someone really wants something specific.

Partner Blue, however, buys souvenirs whenever we go somewhere. If we go to a cool location on a date (museum, amusement park, aquarium, whatever) they're always wanting to spend quite a bit of time (like, half hour) in the gift shop buying things for all my metas. I find this kind of annoying.

I've done some thinking, and it's partly because I have very little patience for shopping, and partly because it feels like Blue is spending time allocated to me on my metas.

I'm wondering if other poly people feel the same way! And also wondering if personal souvenir feelings have any bearing on those feelings. I'm thinking that people who actually enjoy souvenirs would have a lot more patience for souvenir shopping, but that's really only a theory.