A question regarding gift giving

[clevergirl67]

Originally Posted by ysr_racer

Geeze, I glad none of you are my grandparents.

I smell a grandkid that has been spoiled with gifts on everyone's birthdays

[HokieFan]

Originally Posted by Cida

Well, I'm against gift cards altogether. They imply laziness on your part, and it certainly ensures that they will never have any fond memory of your personal generosity.

OP, ignore this comment.

This commenter has this opinion about gift cards but it is not shared by everyone.

[Cida]

Originally Posted by Wild Flower

I still remember the Christmas my father gave me $100. It was so fun shopping, buying anything I wanted.

I think you're being a little harsh on the OP.

Yes, and you know why you remember that $100? Because it was special!

When you have someone that just doles out cards or money, year after year, I suspect all it does in the end is promote greed. "Why didn't they give me more? Don't they know about inflation?" So the kid buys something, but do you think that a year later the kid remembers where the money came from? I doubt it. But I remember exactly who gave me the expensive piece of jewelry, the spellbinding book, the perfect sweater.

[BOS2IAD]

Originally Posted by Cida

Well, I'm against gift cards altogether. They imply laziness on your part, and it certainly ensures that they will never have any fond memory of your personal generosity.

^^^^Yes, this comment is harsh and unwarranted.

Thank you to those of you who gave me support regarding this issue. I appreciate it.

Their Dad doesn't make much money plus soon the child support he gets for the twins from their mother will stop once they turn 18.

Giving the kids gift cards gives them a chance to buy items they want but can't get due to the money struggles. They appreciate getting gift cards. One of the twins asked me to go shopping with him when he got his gift card last year. We went to his favorite store and bought a shirt he liked.

His younger brother went to a store where they never shop due to the price of the clothing sold. He spent part of his money and bought a nice pair of shorts for himself.

The other twin is a big movie buff and collects DVDs. He generally buys them at a thrift shop. He used his card to buy more movies and some video games.

With gift cards, they can choose what they want (of course their Dad can veto a choice if he found it to be inappropriate). If I tried to figure out what movies the movie buff wanted to see, I could get it wrong. Either he has it already or it's a movie that doesn't interest him. If I tried to buy clothing for the other two, they may not like what I chose for them.

If I ever got a gift card as a kid (which never happened) I would have been thrilled to be able to pick out some things that I wanted.

Believe me --- Our grandsons do appreciate all we've done for them. Once, in the past, one of them said to us "Grandma and Grandpa, thank you". I said "for what?" He said, "For all you've done to help us."

[Threestep2]

Originally Posted by Cida

Yes, and you know why you remember that $100? Because it was special!

When you have someone that just doles out cards or money, year after year, I suspect all it does in the end is promote greed. "Why didn't they give me more? Don't they know about inflation?" So the kid buys something, but do you think that a year later the kid remembers where the money came from? I doubt it. But I remember exactly who gave me the expensive piece of jewelry, the spellbinding book, the perfect sweater.

Maybe your memory is not that of a teenager graduating HS this year.

[DubbleT]

Originally Posted by Cida

Yes, and you know why you remember that $100? Because it was special!

When you have someone that just doles out cards or money, year after year, I suspect all it does in the end is promote greed. "Why didn't they give me more? Don't they know about inflation?" So the kid buys something, but do you think that a year later the kid remembers where the money came from? I doubt it. But I remember exactly who gave me the expensive piece of jewelry, the spellbinding book, the perfect sweater.

You've contradicted yourself, is cash special or not? Why would it be somehow different than a gift card since you use it exactly the same way?