LA woman tries to one-up her father-in-law by paying for his subway. He came back with more gifts: ‘I think we’re gonna do this until we die.’

Gift giving is some people’s love language. But when two givers become a part of one family, it could start a never-ending competition. Caroline Garcia (@carolinegarciaiscool) has a problem with her father-in-law. He’s not mean or inappropriate—he just won’t stop giving her gifts.

“One thing I did not see coming, marrying into my Latino family, is how much I would have in common with the patriarch of the family,” Caroline told TikTok. She married Eddie, whose father immigrated from El Salvador. She finds her father-in-law, Mr. Garcia, to be an inspirational figure, as he had left everything behind to build a life for himself and his family in the US.

But Caroline described herself as somebody who did not like owing anyone anything. She’s the type to reciprocate people’s energy and give gifts of equal weight.

“We entered each others’ lives. It was like two trains coming at each other, full speed ahead,” Caroline said. While she appreciates her father-in-law’s provider mindset, it is a mild source of discomfort for her, a highly independent person. Not long ago, she went to Mexico for a vacation with the whole family, and her father-in-law insisted on paying for everything.

“And the whole time that he’s paying for everything, like, my whole eye is twitching,” she joked. Nevertheless, she felt a twinge of guilt that her father-in-law was paying for everything.

The gifts just kept coming

When they got back to the airport and were deciding on lunch. She and her father-in-law were the only ones who decided on Subway.

Caroline took this opportunity to ambush Mr. Garcia. She went first in the line, and she told the cashier to put both his tab and hers under her credit card. When Mr. Garcia walked up to the cashier and was ready to pay, they told him it was already covered.

She finally one-upped her father-in-law during the trip. Caroline thought that would be the end of it, until the next time Mr. Garcia swung by to visit. He handed her a bag of avocados as “payment” for the Subway sandwich. This tipped the scales again. Not only did the man pay for the trip, he also gave her a bunch of fruits.

“Maybe I’ll get you Dodger tickets,” Caroline told him the next time they met. She explained that she has a connection that could help her out. But just a day after that, Mr. Garcia showed up again and offered to clean her air conditioner to “pay her back” for the Dodger tickets.

“I think we’re gonna do this until we die,” Caroline quipped. But she realized that there might be one way to break the deadlock.

“I will have the last gift. A grandchild. How could he return after that?” It’s a solid plot from Caroline. Social media users even suggested other ways she could beat her father-in-law in this gift-giving game.

One commenter said, “Name that baby after him, and it’s checkmate FOREVER!”

Others argued that the baby won’t be enough because Mr. Garcia would probably start building the best nursery and playground known to the children of the world.

But having people who value gifts is a good problem to have. In a world that has people throwing sentimental gifts away at Goodwill, not everyone values what they’re given. This father and daughter-in-law duo are lucky to be sharing the same love language.

(featured images: Christopher Moon, Caroline Garcia, TAC PlazaMaster)