PSA -- Gift Giving

[maxiesmom]

I have to say OP that I think you sound ungrateful. I don't think people set out to deliberately give you things that are "junk". If your children get things that they or you don't like, say thank you, and pass them on to someone who would like them. Or sell them at a garage sale. But it is pretty darn rude to place a bunch of conditions on what kind of gift you want someone else to give.

Be happy that someone is actually spending both their time and money to buy your children gifts. I know if I someone started demanding certain types of gifts they wouldn't get another gift from me.

 

[minkydog]

To a child who has no toys - or will not receive any toys - the "cheap, junky toys" would seem like a $50 toy to them.. I have the feeling that as a child you were never in the position of receiving nothing for Christmas (or any other time of the year), but a piece of clothing, some socks, and maybe an orange "if" you were lucky..





Exactly!!



Sorry - but again - I don't think you have ever known a family with children who were dirt poor - or came from such a large famliy that there were no toys at all..

As for the part of your post that I bolded - when I worked in the school cafeteria of a school in a very poor section of another city, ANY child there who received "20 $5 toys that were complete junk" would have thought they had died and gone to heaven!!! Half of these kids didn't even have a Christmas dinner..


..

I agree with you. I was one of "those" kids. My parents were very poor and there were 5 kids.Our stockings always had whole nuts and an orange in them, and maybe a small baggie of hard candy--those things take up a lotta room. We received food boxes and toys from social service organizations many times ( we were on welfare and food stamps). My parents were highly embarrassed, but they swallowed their pride for us kids. We didn't always get stuff we wanted--Barbie dolls that we didn't play with--but most of the time we got a book or some crafts and one year we got a wagon. We played with that wagon until the wheels fell off!

Never believe for a moment that a kid won't appreciate a cheap toy. A toy is a toy to a kid.