ReGifting

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

If we are FB friends than you already know that my darling five year old child outed me big-time this weekend.

At a birthday party on Sunday Landon was in the tight cluster of kids surrounding the birthday girl while she opened presents. All the parents were watching and birthday girls mom was sitting close writing down names and gifts. The special little lady reached for Landon's gift first and he proudly announced, "That present was from my birthday party but my mom rewrapped it so we could give it to you!"

dum....
          dum....
                     dum.

I ignored him and bent down to hide my face tie Parker's shoe while the birthday princess tore the wrapping paper.

he might have outed me but he sure his cute. especially holding this cute baby
Now I know I'm not the first mom to regift and I won't be the last but I do want to offer up a couple points in my defense.

-- I had ordered a cute little gift for this lady on Amazon a few days earlier. Or so I thought.  When I finally checked the order status on Saturday surprised that it hadn't been delivered yet I saw that I never actually clicked through and the gift was still sitting in my basket. Now I could have made a last minute Target run at this point but, honestly, I am so over last minute Target runs. I do way too many of them.

-- Instead I knew I had a cute girly gift hidden away for such an occasion. I pulled it out and wrapped it and sure enough the recipient loved it. However, when I was wrapping said gift it just felt too small to be her whole present, so I dug into Landon's present pile (he had such a big party we still haven't played with all his gifts) and grabbed a fun puzzle. I figured the puzzle plus the small girly gift would be the perfect combination.

That's where I went wrong...

The small girly gift would have been plenty. (It was a Melissa and Doug paint-and-decorate-your-own-wooden-doll kit.) So why did I think I needed to add more?

This got me thinking - do I/we pay too much for birthday party gifts? I noticed at Landon's birthday party that many of his friends were very generous. He received quite a few Lego sets which can cost upwards of $25 dollars each. He was incredibly thankful for these generous presents, but he was also stoked with the less expensive toys he received as well.

As my kid are getting older I'm noticing that we are being invited to more and more birthday parties which is so fun. Birthday parties really are a kids paradise - cake, games, friends, pizza, candy. What's not to love?! But when you have 2-3 a month the cost can add up.

So I'm curious - do you spend a lot on children's birthday party gifts (over $20) or less? Does it depend on your closeness to the child (your son's best friend versus his soccer teammate)? Or do you have a set amount that you spend - say $15? And if you find a $15 gift for $5 at TJ Maxx (great place to by presents btw) do you buy a second gift or do you just thank your lucky stars for the steal?

Oh, and for the heck of it, do you think resifting is wrong? (I promise not to be offended.)

3 comments:

Jessica G. said...

I can only imagine how embarrassed you must have been! The same thing happened to us, except Connor was the recipient of the regift. I thought it was hysterical that the kid said anything at all. I personally don't see a problem with regifting. As for a price point, I generally try to stick to around $15-$20. But I agree, things have gotten a little out of hand. But, if you find a steal on a gift, be excited that you saved some money and don't buy more to go with it.

Rebecca said...

I think I run in weird circles but we often skip gifts or keep them small with our little friends. Something like a book, puzzle or craft kit. Last year I stole the idea from a friend of having each guest bring a book to swap instead of bringing presents. So each guest left with a new book and I didn't get more toys (which drive me nuts).

Rhiannon said...

I usually don't spend more then $10. If it is a super close friend or we are the only ones invited I will spend a little more, between $15-$20. I regift quite frequently, but only if I think the child really will like it and the toy is still brand new. With four kids I have to go there or I would go broke and crazy!

Two Cent Sparrow.
Template by Labina | Blog Styling by Jess Roy.