J
JLCecilia
Guest
Xantippe, we are the only couple in our entire family to have more than 2 children. One couple has 2 and the rest just have 1 a piece. I think in the past everyone felt like they were jipping our kids to just do group gifts, but over the years I’ve emphasized that they all get played with and our house just isn’t big enough for each child to get a gift from each adult couple. Thankfully, with the all the new grandbabies, we’ve modified our Christmas to make the little ones draw names just as the adults do. They still get spoiled by gramma and grampa, but that’s just fine with us.
I don’t even let my kids take their toys out of the package anymore. Much of it gets returned if it has too many accessories or it’s a duplicate of what we already have or I just know it won’t get played with or if it’s just plain junk. I can then use that money to take them out to movie or their favorite restaurant.
While things are tight for us, Christmas Club is something we always do so that gift-giving isn’t a burden for us. None of us feels obligated to keep up with our well-to-do BIL, he just doesn’t make a big deal about it, but his older brother is insanely jealous, and so that’s really his problem to deal with. They aren’t great at managing their money (lots of eating out and getting hair and nails done and clothes shopping and having their only child in every conceivable activity, new cars all the time). So DH and his other brother don’t worry too much about giving couples gifts. And since we’re always on the receiving end, we like to take this opportunity to give a little something back the one time we’re able.
I don’t even let my kids take their toys out of the package anymore. Much of it gets returned if it has too many accessories or it’s a duplicate of what we already have or I just know it won’t get played with or if it’s just plain junk. I can then use that money to take them out to movie or their favorite restaurant.
While things are tight for us, Christmas Club is something we always do so that gift-giving isn’t a burden for us. None of us feels obligated to keep up with our well-to-do BIL, he just doesn’t make a big deal about it, but his older brother is insanely jealous, and so that’s really his problem to deal with. They aren’t great at managing their money (lots of eating out and getting hair and nails done and clothes shopping and having their only child in every conceivable activity, new cars all the time). So DH and his other brother don’t worry too much about giving couples gifts. And since we’re always on the receiving end, we like to take this opportunity to give a little something back the one time we’re able.