help - need b'day ideas

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Cheers

Anne

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

Jeff

Cheers

Anne

Jeff wrote:

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

I'd only do that if the relatives that sent the money are OK with it.
They may want the child to have some physical toy that is 'from' them.

Go on-line and look at some of the toy catalogues to get ideas and
then you will be better able to shop.
http://www.youngexplorers.com/search...4+Years+and+Up
http://www.brainbuildingtoys.com/new-educational-toys/
http://www.discoverytoysinc.com/toys2a5.htm
http://terrifictoy.com/store/shop_age_4yrs_up.html
http://www.museumtour.com/site_produ...ly+ Childhood

Some simple old-fashioned ideas

# Stacking blocks
# Puzzles
# Balls
# Floating Toys
# Clay, chalk and boards
# Books
# Simple Role Play Toys
# Pretend playsets like garages, airports, dollhouses etc

\
Get dd a stuffed toy or rag doll of her own (probably not good to hand
those down).

In article , Rosalie B. says...

Jeff wrote:

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

I'd only do that if the relatives that sent the money are OK with it.
They may want the child to have some physical toy that is 'from' them.


Does she get to deduct gas cost and the value of her time from the amounts??

Banty

Since so many of our relatives live far away, DD gets a lot of checks, so
what I do is to buy her regular gifts, then decide later who to attribute
each from. We have a relative who sends HUGE checks to buy toys for DD2. If
we spent it all, she'd more than double what she gets for Christmas and
Birthday.

What I started doing was buying one thing for DD2 which I could write about
in a thank you note, from each person, then buying shares of a company which
relates to the toys that she's getting with the rest, including what mommy
and daddy would have spent. It limits the amount of toys, yet provides
something to send photos of. So far, her portfolio is outperforming ours.
Even if she only gets the regular return, by the time she goes to college
those checks will probably come in handy. I'm hoping that when she gets
older we can involve her actively in managing her own portfolio and
selecting stocks for purchase.

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
Jeff wrote:

Anne Rogers wrote:
help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy
birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy
presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've
got
most things already!

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is
3 to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

Unless there is the toy set he really must have.

I'd only do that if the relatives that sent the money are OK with it.

WHen someone gives a gift, they no longer have a say in what is done w/ it.

They may want the child to have some physical toy that is 'from' them.

Go on-line and look at some of the toy catalogues to get ideas and
then you will be better able to shop.
http://www.youngexplorers.com/search...4+Years+and+Up
http://www.brainbuildingtoys.com/new-educational-toys/
http://www.discoverytoysinc.com/toys2a5.htm
http://terrifictoy.com/store/shop_age_4yrs_up.html
http://www.museumtour.com/site_produ...ly+ Childhood

Some simple old-fashioned ideas

# Stacking blocks
# Puzzles
# Balls
# Floating Toys
# Clay, chalk and boards
# Books
# Simple Role Play Toys
# Pretend playsets like garages, airports, dollhouses etc

\
Get dd a stuffed toy or rag doll of her own (probably not good to hand
those down).

Open a bank account for the kid and put the money there. When the kid is 3
to 5 years older, you can start doing investing in stocks and mutual
funds. The family members will be giving him the gift of knowledge about
investing.

I knew someone would suggest that if I didn't explain! Savings plans are
already in existance, this money has been specifically given to me with the
request to buy something for them.

Anne

In article , Anne Rogers says...

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Good grief. You're not the errand girl for your relatives, are you?? Of course
your brain is balking - it senses better than you that you're being put upon!
;-)

If they didn't bother to purchase gifts, then use the money to get whatever you
may happened to have in mind for him and put the rest in a bank account set
aside for him. Or all of it.

Send a short note thanking them for the money. Period. Any relative asking
after what was bought with the money should be met with an abrupt change in
conversation.

Banty (who had a relative who opened up a small custodial investment account
for my son, and was shocked, SHOCKED, to find out I wasn't contributing
regularly to it)

Banty wrote:

In article , Anne Rogers says...

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Good grief. You're not the errand girl for your relatives, are you?? Of course
your brain is balking - it senses better than you that you're being put upon!
;-)

If you have not had children of your own (not all relatives have or
they haven't all had boys), then it can be a challenge to figure out
what kinds of gifts they would enjoy. And if you ask the mother, and
she doesn't know either (as Anne doesn't seem to have had any ideas)
then what else is there to do but send money. Would that not be
better than giving them something completely inappropriate?

If they didn't bother to purchase gifts, then use the money to get whatever you
may happened to have in mind for him and put the rest in a bank account set
aside for him. Or all of it.

Send a short note thanking them for the money. Period. Any relative asking
after what was bought with the money should be met with an abrupt change in
conversation.

This seems ungracious to me.

Banty (who had a relative who opened up a small custodial investment account
for my son, and was shocked, SHOCKED, to find out I wasn't contributing
regularly to it)

That's the other side of sending money.

In article , Rosalie B. says...

Banty wrote:

In article , Anne Rogers says...

help, I'm feeling brain dead, I need to get my act together and buy birthday
presents, DS is 4 on Monday and has had money sent for me to buy presents
from various relatives. I've got a bit more time for DD, who is 2 in two
weeks, but I'm particularly stuck for her, as being a 2nd child, we've got
most things already!

Good grief. You're not the errand girl for your relatives, are you?? Of course
your brain is balking - it senses better than you that you're being put upon!
;-)

If you have not had children of your own (not all relatives have or
they haven't all had boys), then it can be a challenge to figure out
what kinds of gifts they would enjoy. And if you ask the mother, and
she doesn't know either (as Anne doesn't seem to have had any ideas)
then what else is there to do but send money. Would that not be
better than giving them something completely inappropriate?

Nothing wrong with giving money. A lot is wrong with expecting that they fund
presents quickly gotten by someone else for you.


If they didn't bother to purchase gifts, then use the money to get whatever you
may happened to have in mind for him and put the rest in a bank account set
aside for him. Or all of it.

Send a short note thanking them for the money. Period. Any relative asking
after what was bought with the money should be met with an abrupt change in
conversation.

This seems ungracious to me.

Why? A gift is a gift. One doesnt' have to say what was done with a gift. One
thanks for the gift. This time, the gift is money, so you thank for the money.

Now, I do understand that a very elder person who is having trouble getting
around may make an arrangement with a parent. Or someone deployed overseas,
etc. But that's an explicit arrangement. Then more would be said in a thank
you note. (And it's getting less and less necessary given the internet - fewer
and fewer people really are in that position.)

But on the other hand, I've seen (and had) a lot of simple laziness or "If I
can't find it at Walmart I'm just sending the money for it" or "I don't know
what to get", but expecting that $xx.xx that they sent be accounted for with the
description of some single tangible something fitting the value of the check,
and on time by golly, from some relatives. When Anne says it's several
relatives and she doesn't have any idea what to do, I'm fairly sure she's
describing the latter case. Or at the least, she's allowed too many relatives
to have that understanding with her.

Banty