My brother has been feeling low (he has seasonal affective disorder) lately and I wanted to get him a thoughtful gift. Recently I realized that no one in our family has ever taken an interest in his hobbies. So I got him a gift related to his hobby, a three thousand piece puzzle of an image of a bunch of characters he loves. I thought he would love the gift, and he did, but there's one thing I didn't consider.

There isn't a surface big enough in my brother's house to do this puzzle, save for one, the floor of the nursery, the one my niece will be living in less than four months from now. He sent me a picture of the floor of the nursery, covered in puzzle pieces. My brother returns to work on Monday, and realistically, between work, chores, baby prep, spending time with his family, he is going to have less than an hour a day to devote to this puzzle. He isn't an avid puzzler. He's got like four pieces put together so far (all edge pieces).

Now my brother is starting to panic. He's worried that he won't finish before the baby arrives, and he has nowhere else this puzzle will fit. He was going to just pick up the pieces and postpone the puzzle, but he promised my nephews they would all three do the puzzle together, and Ricky is already super into it, so my brother doesn't want to disappoint him.

Now my brother is racing against the clock to finish this puzzle before his daughter is born. What was supposed to be fun and relaxing has become a new source of anxiety for him. I should have gotten him a signed poster.

TLDR: I wanted to help my brother feel less depressed, so I bought him a 3k piece puzzle, and now he only has a few months to finish it and is stressed.