Even stevens?

binny

do something that MATTERS!
Joined
Mar 14, 2001
Messages
14,933
no not the show. :)

Im talking about making sure that everything is equal for each child.

I have a friend who makes sure she spends EXACTLY the same amount on each of her children and they each have EXACTLY the same amount of presents under the tree.

Now I can see the amount of presents being equal or at least close but how do you get every child the same amount of toys for the same money? Cam wants toys that are WAY more expensive than what the girls want.

An extreme example is Dh's Grandfather who still has to mke everything even for his kids ( who are both in their 60's!!!) If one gets a new gift the other has to have to a new gift of the same value and type. I mean come on! If you cant get a gift for one and not the other by the time theyre THAT age??

So how "even" do you try to make it with your kids ( or kids you buy for)
 
When I was little (like in the first through third grade), my best friend had a sister who was 3 years younger than she was. Their mom was crazy about making sure everything was even. They got the exact same presents for Christmas. On birthdays, she bought two of the same gifts, so there would be two of everything. It wasn't just big stuff, either. They had 2 identicle sets of bookshelves with identicle books on them. (There was also a brother who was about 2 years older than the older girl. He didn't get any presents on the girls' birthdays or anything like that. I don't know how he felt about the matter.)

I thought the whole thing was silly then, and I especially do now. Life doesn't always appear to be fair. If you don't show your kids that when they're young, they'll just get a chip on their shoulder when everything doesn't go their way as they get older. If they get passed over for a promotion, they'll just get mad instead of trying to work harder so that it will be them the next time.
 
My kids get the same amount of presents and something similar. For example Cameron got Lincoln Logs and Colton got Bristle Blocks to "match" that. The price usually end up around the same. I think this year it came out to about 12.00 difference. I was trying to stay somewhat in the same price range, but I did better than I thought.
 

I make sure they have an equal amount of gifts but I don't compare the money value. DS is WAY easier (and cheaper) to buy for. He asked for race cars, this means Hot Wheels. Compared to DD who wants clothes...
 
DD is 18 months, so we are not too worried aboot keeping things even with DS 6. But NEXT year will be a different story.
 
I've always made sure my kids each of my kids had the same number of presents to open, even if I get them something small or some necessities like new socks to even it out. Maybe its silly but I don't want either of them to feel slighted!

This year though, my son is getting one thing that was really expensive so he doesn't have much under the tree. The big thing is hidden in the basement till Christmas because he might guess what it is. I keep telling him I'm not finished shopping when he asks why his sister has more. I've held back some of her things so the difference isn't as noticeable. Oh the things we do as parents!!!
 
/
We used to try to get even # of presents. We didn't do that this year because Kevin's gifts cost more but he is also old enough to understand that.
 
My parents did (and still do) try to spend the same amount of money on presents and give us the same number. So if one of us had a really expensive present we would get the same number of gifts as the other siblings but the rest of our presents would be less expensive.
 

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