Intelligent Gift Giving vs Wasteful Giving - Resources, Suggestions, Opinions welcomed (toddlers, toy)
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Apparently you missed the thread discussing this trend of asking for donations instead of gifts. A lot of us were lukewarm about this, especially when the donation is for a specific charity. Speaking for myself, I don't like to be told what charity to donate to. Memberships are great, but aren't they a little expensive?
Guess I missed that thread, sorry if my thoughts don't apply here.
The cost of memberships depends on the place and type of memberhip. Also, if you buy more than one at a time you sometimes get a discount. We recently bought a gift membership to a Botanical Garden for a friend's family for $45 for the year. It's normally $60 for the year but because we renewed our own family membership at the same time they offered a discount.
Some families right now would even appreciate something like a CostCo membership or something along those lines. Not exactly great to give to kids for a birthday, but for a family in tough times it's a great gift. Or just an offer of a CostCo trip and splitting the cost and dividing up items or something a long those lines.
We once gave a family a states park pass. We live in an area where we have tons of beautiful state parks and they are very popular spots for family weekends.
Also, punch cards for the pool are fun gifts for kids. At our pool I think they are around $30.
Magazine subscriptions are also fun gifts for kids. My kids used to love the National Geographic for Kids and the Time Magazine for Kids editions when they were younger. Ranger Rick and Highlights are also classics.
Gift-giving is one of the oldest and most useless forms of pageantry in human culture. The only reason it is retained is because the retail market for consumer goods keeps spending billions of dollars persuading people that NOT giving a gift is a direct path to social ostracization.
I do not ever want anybody to give me a gift, for any reason or pretext. If i need it or want it, i already have it. Which is a guarantee that If I don't already have it, I don't need and don't want it.
That's irrelevant to a little kid, though. They want stuff. You probably did too at that age.
Guess I missed that thread, sorry if my thoughts don't apply here.
The cost of memberships depends on the place and type of memberhip. Also, if you buy more than one at a time you sometimes get a discount. We recently bought a gift membership to a Botanical Garden for a friend's family for $45 for the year. It's normally $60 for the year but because we renewed our own family membership at the same time they offered a discount.
Some families right now would even appreciate something like a CostCo membership or something along those lines. Not exactly great to give to kids for a birthday, but for a family in tough times it's a great gift. Or just an offer of a CostCo trip and splitting the cost and dividing up items or something a long those lines.
We once gave a family a states park pass. We live in an area where we have tons of beautiful state parks and they are very popular spots for family weekends.
Also, punch cards for the pool are fun gifts for kids. At our pool I think they are around $30.
Magazine subscriptions are also fun gifts for kids. My kids used to love the National Geographic for Kids and the Time Magazine for Kids editions when they were younger. Ranger Rick and Highlights are also classics.
$30-45 is way more than I would spend for a birthday present for a kid's party.
Here is the thread where this charitable donation issue was discussed:
So I started asking them :"which do you want - a family day trip to the zoo or a boat load of plastic toys " of course they wanted the zoo.
To me, this is a great question. When you let the kid make a real choice, they start to see how money works. I've been looking at these kinds of forums, seeing how people teach their kids to manage money. There are different ways, but I think it's all about giving the kids choices. We let the kids pick out some things they want to save for - add to it a college saving, just a bit, and a charity - then let them spend their money. They feel independent and see how you can't buy everything, you have to make choices.
Last edited by JustJulia; 04-08-2011 at 06:46 AM..
Reason: New members may not post links
In my opinion, the way that we give gifts through our children’s childhood is completely wasteful. I read that by the time a child is 18, they have received anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 in gifts through birthdays, holidays, graduations, etc
I mean why do we put so much emphasis on little toys, trinkets or gift certificates when we could actually be making significant contributions to our children’s future? (Saving for college, first car, etc)
totally agree, I intend to get a time-teaching watch for my 4 y.o. granddaughter's birthday. The display uses activity pictograms ( a little teddy bear, a tooth brush...) , instead of digits or hands. The child is supposed to rapidly associate activities (lunch, play, nap...) with key moments of the day.
Anybody knows of this method?
Cheers. Daphne.
Last edited by JustJulia; 09-28-2011 at 12:15 PM..
Reason: new members may not post links, sorry
totally agree, I intend to get a time-teaching watch for my 4 y.o. granddaughter's birthday. The display uses activity pictograms ( a little teddy bear, a tooth brush...) , instead of digits or hands. The child is supposed to rapidly associate activities (lunch, play, nap...) with key moments of the day.
Anybody knows of this method?
Cheers. Daphne.
You mean instead of "both hands are on 12 which means noon" it shows something like a sandwich? It implies we have to eat at noon. I vote No. Teaches regimentation more than how to tell time.
You mean instead of "both hands are on 12 which means noon" it shows something like a sandwich? It implies we have to eat at noon. I vote No. Teaches regimentation more than how to tell time.
The child will grow up and work at McDonalds, and on the cash register, just press a button with a picture of a Big Mac on it, instead of the numbers 4-9-5.
OMG... I hate wasteful gift giving... My MIL buys the most ridiculous toys for my kids (in ridiculous quantities). One year I told her that the kids enjoyed toy kitchen stuff. She bought over 1,000 pieces of fake plastic food-- I KID YOU NOT. Then had a poop fit when I sold them this year at a garage sale-- dude my kids are 5 and 7, they don't play with their toddler kitchen set anymore. I can't keep EVERY SINGLE TOY.
I don't think gifts are wasteful, but they can certainly be overdone. I remember reading in the Tightwad Gazette once about a tipping point, where once you put a certain number of gifts under the tree adding more won't make a child any happier or more satisfied.
We usually buy our children one special gift for Christmas or their birthdays. It's always something they really want and will use. Past examples have been American Girl dolls, Ipods, laptops, Wi gaming systems and digital cameras and camcorders. They're grandparents and aunts and uncles tend to gift gift cards which they love and save until they can purchase what they want on sale.
We'll also stuff their stockings with small, fun gifts and this seems to satisfy them. We live in a small house on a limited budget. Filling the house with gifts that will soon be forgotten wouldn't work for us on any level.
But, to each their own. I have a wealthy family member who buys her kids so many presents that they have to haul them home in a trailer (they celebrate Christmas out of state). They can afford it and have a 5,000-square-foot home so storage isn't an issue.
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saving and spending choices
