Weird sibling behavior (bday present)

[mary_poppins]

Hi all. How is everyone doing?

It was my birthday yesterday and, weird enough, I received a gift from both my brothers (they live together).
They never bought me a gift before. The gift doesn't come close to what I want (except for one item) and was even offending (they bought me anti-wrinkle creams for 'mature' women' I don't use stuff like this because I don't have wrinkles but they 'decided' that it's time for me to use it-ha ha).
Anyway, the weirdest thing was a card that they bought and wrote themselves; in it they wish me happy bday and write that they love me.

I'm 41 and never in my entire life they have sent me a bday card or said 'i love you' or bought a 'gift' for my bday. Just for context, we are not close, we're LC with each other.
One brother is NPD, the other is with narcissistic traits. Both brothers serve as golden children to my parents and do our parents' 'dirty' work when they can't.

I even overheard them talk trash about me once. It's clear that there's a twisted reason behind this gift (love-bombing behavior?) because they are only nice to me when they need something from me.

I know how narcissists work and I'm not easily fooled by them.

Did this ever happen to you, did your PD sibling send you an elaborate gift or wrote a beautiful, emotional card to you and how did you handle it?

If my brothers were normal, loving people, I wouldn't at all be suspicious of this gift. But they're not nice people. And we don't even talk.

Thoughts?

[Poison Ivy]

I'm wondering whether your brothers are attempting to get in your good graces because they want to ask you for help with family stuff. Are your parents still alive? If yes, how is their health and how are they doing financially? I'm asking because sometimes the "we're all one big happy family" attitude is brought out when people want to push relatives to help.

[mary_poppins]

@Poison Ivy No, my parents are not sick, although they do have their health issues. My PD dad is partially disabled but he's like that because he refused to have an operation (says he rather be disabled than going through that operation). I'm sure they (brothers) want something from me, at least now I know that this 'we're a happy family' attitude is an act.

[JollyJazz]

Yes this definitely sounds like a hoover! It's hard because often there's part of us that really wants things to be better than they are. So we have to also wrestle with our own denial at times.

I think you are seeing this all clearly. Guaranteed they want something.

It might be to get you on board to sign for your parents to move to an aged care home for instance, or do the care work.