Having fours kids has meant our family has gone to, and continues to go to, alot of birthday parties over the years. It also means that I’ve purchased alot of gifts too. Over time, I began to notice a bit of trend developing over what to buy for the gifts and I thought I’d share it to see what everyone else thought.
When the kids were young, determining what to buy their friends was relatively easy. Toddlers will pretty much enjoy anything you get them, although clothes were not always high on the list. As they grew out of the toddler stage and entered elementary school, it was always a good idea to ask their parents to get some sort of direction as to what the kids were interested in. When the kids hit 3rd or 4th grade, I started to go the gift card route since the kids were getting a bit more selective about what stores they liked to shop at. At the last stage of the elementary school years, the point our house is currently at, the kids really like CASH! They have strong opinions over where they like to shop and what they want to buy. I know my kids are at that money management stage and they are really smart shoppers. Rather than using their instant gratification instinct to run out to the nearest store to buy the item they want, they shop around a bit to see where they can get it for the best price in order to stretch their cash as far as it can go.
Now, some may say that the gift card and cash option loses the personal touch of the gift itself but, I’m perfectly fine with it. No need to go return a gift if you don’t like it, or worse yet, be stuck with it because of no gift receipt.
I’m curious to see what you all think about my thoughts on birthday party gifts. Hey, I may be the only one that thinks this way but the older they get, the easier it is to buy gifts!
