Do your kids buy Gifts????
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Do your kids buy Gifts????
| Thu, 11-29-2007 - 12:34pm |
General question to all parents of teens (step and birth):
Do you expect / ask
| Thu, 11-29-2007 - 12:34pm |
General question to all parents of teens (step and birth):
Do you expect / ask
DS15 has never bought presents for others (he does not have a job so has no income to do this with).
I agree with you that it is not about "buying" so much as it is "giving". I love that idea though (dipping)!
Thanks!
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!!
I neither "expect" them to nor "ask" them to buy gifts for anyone. I may, however, ask them if they are planning to buy a gift for "so-and-so", but generally leave it up to them. On the other hand, my kids have always (since maybe the 3rd or 4th grade) either made or bought gifts for various family members and their friends. And they use their own money (saved from their allowance).
Up until they were about 13 or so they did not get any friend's gifts except for maybe their best buddie and I would pay for that (limit of $10) - just something small. And they usually made the family a gift, such as coupons for for things like "free hugs" "clean windows" "bathe dogs", "rake leaves" etc.
After 13, they would do come extra chores to earn money to buy a couple of their friends gifts, but again, it was small things, like colorful bags of holiday candy or homemade holiday cookies or holiday hot cocoa mixes. I would sometimes have to chip in a few dollars but I didn't have a problem with that at all as long as they weren't going overboard. For the family, they would get each of, H, exh, and me a special small gift. Sometimes I would help them pay for a gift for their dads and their dad's would help them pay for a gift for me.
And then, once they began making their own money at around 16, they did it all themselves. With most of their friends it was something small, but for their BFF they'd get something special. And they began buying their own gifts for their families now.
And now, at 18 and 20, they are like little Santa Mouses!
I always made sure that my kids bought a gift for their father (my ex) and for each other.
We've always encouraged the kids to give gifts at the holidays.
Our family is huge on Christmas and we have a lot of people we exchange with. A few years ago we went to just picking one name
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We expect them to buy gifts for immediate family and we provide the funds. We did this through high school graduation at which point they were expected to foot the bill, although they worked at 15/16 and could have paid earlier(if I had a do over, I would have started them paying then)
No great philisophical reason-it just seems to work!
I do think there is some value in giving gift suggestions within a price range appropriate for the giver. GMs always asked for list, for example, and it was a lesson at some point that you didnt ask GM for the 100 dollar item but something 20 ish. Ditto for gifts to and from each other, especially with the two buying on their own. So they are all careful to make lists with a variety ot price ranges(yes, they ALL still make lists-mom has only so much brain left)
It is fun, isn't it?