If kids are showered with mountains of presents at every gift-giving opportunity, how can we fault them for expecting more, more, more? I would much rather see my daughter receive just a few nice gifts from her immediate family and closest friends. It makes my life easier since I don't have to find homes for a ton of new toys, and I don't have to figure out what to do with gifts from well-meaning friends that don't jibe with our values, or are just kind of junky/ugly/too-loud-and-beepy.
Just say Girl Power!
Now, let me get a condom out of
my boot before we talk money.
[I don't mean to sound like a snob, but there are some toys I don't want my daughter to have....say, anything in the I-want-to-be-a-prostitute-when-I-grow-up! category (aka Bratz dolls). I'm seriously not a humorless PC enforcer, but you don't have to be a feminist to gag a little when you think about what little girls are internalizing when they play with those dolls. But I digress.]
And, with fewer gifts, maybe I can adjust my daughter's expectations a little. Maybe, if I'm really lucky, she'll appreciate the things she has rather than just glancing at generic toy #526 then tossing it onto the pile as she shouts "Next!"
The complicating factor is that people really want to buy stuff for kids. I was recently invited to a friend's baby's birthday party, and the invitation stated "No gifts necessary." One of the other invitees, however, asked what I was going to buy (if anything); she felt that despite what the invitation said, one ought to bring a gift. I still opted not to purchase a gift (though I brought wine for the parents...I figured that they could use the booze more than their 1-year-old could use another push toy), but I couldn't help wondering if I appeared cheap, thoughtless, etc. as a consequence. Why does a celebration have to be about who buys what? And how do you opt out of the cycle of consumption (or at least scale back) without coming across as ungrateful or holier-than-thou?
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