I hate the holidays
I just write checks now————easy.
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I work on the theory that the sons get what they need, the grandsons get what they want.
I always ask them what they want, this year, they both told me money. Pretty easy.
When I was 10, my Brothers and I searched for a Mother’s Day gift. We picked a pretty but cheap flower vase at the dime store.
We could not find a card which said “from your 3 Sons” so we just put an “S” after Son and a “3” before. For some reason it really touched her.
Many years later she told me that vase was the most valuable thing she owned. After she died, I found the card in her keepsakes. My Daughter now has it and the vase.
Every child should be given a piggy bank and a way to make music. YMMV
Those were very nice comments.
I try to find a gift for friends kids that the kids will love and the parents will hate. Like the voice changing megaphone I gave my best friends 3 year old. She’s 15 now and still has it, parents still hate it. It’s good for a laugh now.
I hope you keep all those grandparents’ gifts.
When you kids are older, they may pay double to get it back.
Our grandsons have enough toys and clothes for 3 kids each.
So this year we decided to deposit some money into an individual savings account that their uncle (our youngest son) has already set up for them. They will still get a little something under the tree but the majority of the money that I would normally spend is going into the account. I have the total support from the parents. They agree that their two have way too much stuff.
Our youngest is the executor and has already decided that they are to use it for a down payment for a car or a house.
A few years ago, one of my kids told my mom that my son loved pickles. He got a big jar of pickles for. Christmas.
He hates pickles and it became a huge family joke.
The brick is painted as a 1930's car. His Dad always said all he had to play with when young was a brick.
Brother and I are breaking out our buddy from the assisted living center around noon.
The brick goes back his room when we return.
One year , I was seven, my dad gave me a pair of woolen Norwegian ski socks. It was my first lesson in being polite.
Those socks were not what I wanted or even needed. Dad was pleased with them. He picked them out. That was good enough.
One year, I got it in my mind that I had to have a 10-speed bike. Nothing else would do. I was probably 13. My dad encouraged me to look at other bikes but I didn’t want to and finally, I was a real snothead and declared that if I couldn’t have a 10-speed, I didn’t want anything.
Christmas morning rolled in and there was a really nice bike waiting for me. It wasn’t a 10-speed but it was really nice. Somehow I had completely forgotten my selfish and rotten attitude and I was very excited. Then I happened to turn around and catch my mom and dad’s faces and a big ol’ lump came up in my throat and tears started coming down my face. I was so ashamed of myself. I told them I was sorry and they said everything was fine, but I think I cried off and on the rest of the day because I was so embarrassed at how ugly I had been.
My dad is 85 and my mom has been gone for 20 years now but I’m still ashamed of myself about that.
Peach
One year, I got it in my mind that I had to have a 10-speed bike. Nothing else would do. I was probably 13. My dad encouraged me to look at other bikes but I didn’t want to and finally, I was a real snothead and declared that if I couldn’t have a 10-speed, I didn’t want anything.
Christmas morning rolled in and there was a really nice bike waiting for me. It wasn’t a 10-speed but it was really nice. Somehow I had completely forgotten my selfish and rotten attitude and I was very excited. Then I happened to turn around and catch my mom and dad’s faces and a big ol’ lump came up in my throat and tears started coming down my face. I was so ashamed of myself. I told them I was sorry and they said everything was fine, but I think I cried off and on the rest of the day because I was so embarrassed at how ugly I had been.
My dad is 85 and my mom has been gone for 20 years now but I’m still ashamed of myself about that.
Peach
I was with my college-junior nephew over Thanksgiving and he had a cast on his right hand/wrist. It was explained to me that he punched a wall. So he’s getting a drywall repair book.
I never got a single gift from any of my grandparents, for any occasion. I didn’t even know that was a ‘thing’ until I was well grown.
I guess they loved us in their own way, but they left that sort of thing to my parents, who always came through with the goodies.
Real leather:
I think you can ship it to California, now.
I’m serious.
“difficult for Grandparents to know what a nice gift would be for Grandchildren whom they see twice a year and don’t really know. And requested gift lists were generally ignored.”
Twice a year? That’s on you. And a requested gift list? Again...not cool.
This child cried because he got a gift of something that had belonged to his great grandparent. And his sister wasn’t interested in a set of sterling flatware.This was probably the most sad post I have ever read here on FR. But it’s been the most valuable.
I was just about to send my daughter a set of flatware that had belonged to one of her grandmothers and some china. It’s expensive. The china was 1850 Spode and the flatware 1900 Tiffany. It is not the price it’s the fact that it belonged to an ancestor who valued it.
If kids today are going to cry if they get an empty wood box from a great grandfather or some old china - they’re losers.
It’s best to sell your stuff on eBay rather than give it to ungrateful kids and grandchildren.