See, my mother gave me house slippers of one form or another for three or four Xmases in a row when I was in high school -- but that was because I never wore any of them, and the "lesson" she took from that was that she hadn't hit upon the kind I liked and needed to keep looking, rather than realizing that I ran around the house barefoot because I don't like wearing shoes if I can get away without doing so and really didn't want house shoes.

My mother is not known for making good gift choices. So, yeah, I agree with your assessment.