Tuesday, April 24

Outrageous Birthday Presents

My niece just turned ten over the weekend, and her neighbor gave her a $120 gaming system as a present, despite my sister's insistence that the parents not allow her to do it.

"But she really wants to give it to her," was their answer.

Since when do kids get to do and get everything they want? My niece wanted the system, to be sure, but she told the family that it was too expensive for one person to get, so she was asking if everyone could give her money instead of gifts so that she could save up for it over the rest of the year (between birthday and Christmas she probably would have had it). My sister was all for this, and so was the rest of the family. (Okay, Hubby and I are party poopers and insisted on sending a gift certificate to Barnes & Noble, but the girl loves to read, too.) But no one was going to spend that much on her gift alone.

And yet the neighbor kid goes and spends over $100 on her gift! Completely outrageous. I don't spend that much on my own children's birthdays, parties included! I think last year's party for Big Girl cost us a total of $40, and that was because we had cake, pizza and small goody bags. And I might be overestimating. We had the party at the park. And gifts included did not add up to that one gift.

And how do you think the other kids felt after seeing that present? "Man, my present stinks. She must hate it." It's just plain inconsiderate, if you ask me.

What on EARTH are the parents thinking, buying a gift like that??? Or are they thinking at all?

UPDATE: It's a Nintendo DS Lite.

3 comments:

Stacey said...

Holy cow, how rude are those other parents??? If your sister asked that they not give her daughter something, they seriously should have heeded? Was it a hand-me-down or something? That's unreal.

Your sister should give that kid the loudest, most obnoxious present in the entire world for his/her next birthday, see how the parents like that.

And I agree. Also, did you see some of the Easter baskets in grocery/drug stores this year? When did Easter become Christmas?

Christine the Soccer Mom said...

I asked my mother the same thing, about it being a hand-me-down. Nope. The girl has one, but got a brand new one for First God-daughter. Mom thinks that she spent her own money on it (which also tells me that the parents probably give her a bigger allowance than I ever dreamed of). Either way, when my sister begged them not to do it (they asked if First God-daughter really wanted one), they kept saying that their daughter really wanted to give it to her.

I am a firm believer in letting kids pine away about some things. For example, my parents want to give our girls the little battery-powered Kawasaki they picked up at a garage sale some years ago. The girls love it, and they are too big for the battery-powered Jeep (which we are sending back to Florida with Mom and Dad in May). But we don't want it here, and so we declined. Every time it's mentioned, Mom and Dad say that the girls "love to ride it." Hubby said that was fine; they can love to ride it at Grandma and Pa Pa's house. ;)

I'm just wondering when children started getting every little thing they wanted. It sure didn't happen often when I was a kid, and most of us thought that kids who did get their way all the time were just bratty and mean.

Stacey said...

Well, that's because you're the Meanest Mom in the Whole World.

I still think that's absolutely ridiculous. If that really was that child's money from allowance, those parents are seriously doing a bad job teaching that kid the value of a buck.

Secondly, even if the daughter really wanted to give that game system to your niece, YOUR SISTER ASKED THEM NOT TO. Should that NOT be enough??

Who are your heros?

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