no toys please

In article sRbgi.1986$t95.1751@trndny01, Stephanie says...



You are going to shiver with this one. A couple of years ago, a friend of
ours responded in the affirmative to a bbq. He asked what can he bring. I
told him a side dish of his choice. This is an annual bbq and folks always
ask what to bring. It is a huge party so if folks ask, I take 'em up on it.
He calls hours after the bbq ended and TOLD ME that his friend called him at
the last minute and invited him to a different party.


Yeah, the old "I'll come if nothing better comes up.." deal.

Banty

In article . com,
says...

On Jun 26, 12:14 pm, "Stephanie" wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message

news:8W7gi.2355$YS.974@trnddc03...



Stephanie wrote:
"toypup" wrote in message
. ..
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think
that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but then I
go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I think it means no toys but we would love your other filthy lucre. I
think indicating no gifts is Ok. But to tell a gift giver WHAT to give
unasked is rude. But... that said, what are you going to do? I would get
a book if it were me.

If you were giving a gift, would you rather give a gift that the recipient
would use or would you rather give a gift that the recipient already has
100s of? I think indicating no toys because the kid has enough toys is
perfectly fine.

jeff

I think that mention of what gift to give smacks of greed. The onus for
chosing a gift that the recipient would like belongs with the giver, and it
is that which makes the giving fun. If the recipient wants something in
particular, then they can go buy it, save for it, moan for it... whatever.

On the contrary, I prefer this. Gives me an idea on what to get.


So why don't you just call the parents doing the inviting and ask them?

Banty

In article , Knit Chic says...


"toypup" wrote in message
.. .
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but then I go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I would LOVE for someone to give us an invite that said no toys! I would
gladly spend the money on a gift card, a book, a movie pass, anything but
toys.

??

So, what's stopping you now from spending the money on a gift card, a book, a
movie pass, anything but toys?

Banty

On Jun 26, 8:56 am, "Donna Metler" wrote:
I wish there WAS a polite way to specify, though. DD's birthday and
Christmas are close together, and really, by the time she gets through her
birthday, she doesn't need much of anything for Christmas-but at least while
she's a toddler, often things given now can't be saved for a few months
because if she's really into it now, that may change in 6 months.

I'm seriously considering celebrating a half-birthday in the summer, and not
doing anything but a cake with family for her real birthday.

Our older boys are 2 years apart and both have birthdays in the
spring. If we let them both have big parties, I'm not sure where we'd
put the supply of kites and water guns (since they always seem to get
several each year). We've gone on a rotating schedule that only one
of them gets a party each year and the other gets to just pick a fun
activity (bowling, zoo, etc.) to bring one special friend to. It
keeps down the amount of toys coming in at once. They still get a
small family party with a special cake each year, but our family
always asks what to get the boys and they've gotten the message that
clothes and books are much more appreciated. (Yes, I said clothes.
DS2 is a huge sports fanatic and loves getting shirts or hats with his
favorite teams on them.)

Perhaps for a December birthday you could do something similar. Every
other year have a party and on the off-year, take a special friend out
for ice skating, the Nutcracker, or whatever.

We've also started giving the neighbor kids "experiences" instead of
toys for their birthdays. We invite them on a special treat to an ice
cream shop or have them over on "Breakfast for Dinner" night and let
them choose if they want pancakes or waffles. The great part is that
they have reciprocated with similar gifts. You could try starting
something similar with her close friends.

Annie

"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article sRbgi.1986$t95.1751@trndny01, Stephanie says...



You are going to shiver with this one. A couple of years ago, a friend of
ours responded in the affirmative to a bbq. He asked what can he bring. I
told him a side dish of his choice. This is an annual bbq and folks always
ask what to bring. It is a huge party so if folks ask, I take 'em up on
it.
He calls hours after the bbq ended and TOLD ME that his friend called him
at
the last minute and invited him to a different party.


Yeah, the old "I'll come if nothing better comes up.." deal.

Banty


He used to belly ache that we never wanted to hang out with him anymore
after that. He was the most selfish man alive. We were neither the first no
the last person to decide he was too high maintenance. He may be seeing the
error of his ways since it seems he has no invitations to bbqs anymore.

wrote in message
ups.com...
On Jun 26, 12:14 pm, "Stephanie" wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message

news:8W7gi.2355$YS.974@trnddc03...



Stephanie wrote:
"toypup" wrote in message
. ..
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think
that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but then
I
go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I think it means no toys but we would love your other filthy lucre. I
think indicating no gifts is Ok. But to tell a gift giver WHAT to give
unasked is rude. But... that said, what are you going to do? I would
get
a book if it were me.

If you were giving a gift, would you rather give a gift that the
recipient
would use or would you rather give a gift that the recipient already
has
100s of? I think indicating no toys because the kid has enough toys is
perfectly fine.

jeff

I think that mention of what gift to give smacks of greed. The onus for
chosing a gift that the recipient would like belongs with the giver, and
it
is that which makes the giving fun. If the recipient wants something in
particular, then they can go buy it, save for it, moan for it...
whatever.

On the contrary, I prefer this. Gives me an idea on what to get.


It is up to you to ask IMO.

"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
says...

On Jun 26, 12:14 pm, "Stephanie" wrote:
"Jeff" wrote in message

news:8W7gi.2355$YS.974@trnddc03...



Stephanie wrote:
"toypup" wrote in message
. ..
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think
that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but
then I
go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I think it means no toys but we would love your other filthy lucre. I
think indicating no gifts is Ok. But to tell a gift giver WHAT to
give
unasked is rude. But... that said, what are you going to do? I would
get
a book if it were me.

If you were giving a gift, would you rather give a gift that the
recipient
would use or would you rather give a gift that the recipient already
has
100s of? I think indicating no toys because the kid has enough toys is
perfectly fine.

jeff

I think that mention of what gift to give smacks of greed. The onus for
chosing a gift that the recipient would like belongs with the giver, and
it
is that which makes the giving fun. If the recipient wants something in
particular, then they can go buy it, save for it, moan for it...
whatever.

On the contrary, I prefer this. Gives me an idea on what to get.


So why don't you just call the parents doing the inviting and ask them?

Banty


Alert the media! Banty and Stephanie agree on a matter of ploite social
interaction! (Don't take offense, please. I am kidding around.)

On Jun 26, 2:41 pm, Banty wrote:
In article , Knit Chic says...



"toypup" wrote in message
.. .
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but then I go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I would LOVE for someone to give us an invite that said no toys! I would
gladly spend the money on a gift card, a book, a movie pass, anything but
toys.

??

So, what's stopping you now from spending the money on a gift card, a book, a
movie pass, anything but toys?

And also remember ... there's nothing stopping you from calling up the
family that issued the invite and saying *so, is there anything little
Suzy particularly wants for her birthday?*

Barbara

xkatx schrieb:
"NL" wrote in message
...
toypup schrieb:
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but then I
go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I think it just means no toys... I don't know if things like (family)games
and puzzles and things would be ok, but I would say books definitely are
ok or books on tape/CD...
I know I'm trying to limit the amount of little plastic pieces that make
their way into my sons room. Especially toy cars. He has millions of them!
He keeps getting them from my brothers "stash", from our friends stash, he
buys them with his pocket money (they're about a euro each and he gets 50
cents every Sunday, except most times we both forget about it, so it's not
like he's buying two/month) or makes my brother bribe him with them (And
my brother falls for it _every damn time_!).

Hm... Your brother sounds fairly younger... Not real young, but younger than
older - like my brothers. My oldest younger brother is the same way with
DS - and DS has a gazillion cars from way back when that he keeps collecting
from my parents' place lol

He's two years younger than me (I'm 31 he's 29) but he can not say no to
Sam. It drives me nuts sometimes.

I was recently helping my dad clean out their basement (city workers were
coming in to do something with the gas lines and needed access to the
basement) and DS wandered downstairs and found one (of many) boxes of random
toys from when my brothers and I were little. He ended up pocketing as many
toy cars and dinosaurs that his pockets and hands would carry, brought them
upstairs and my brother had to stop him to look at the long lost treasures
that were once his toys. He ended up making some deal with DS and it ended
up that DS carted more toy cars home. My bro sounds a lot like yours lol

Oh gosh yes. The attic. We have a rule, for every thing that comes down
something else must go up. And with my brother he tries the "One car up,
one _box_ of cars down" trick... Or my brother would randomly gather a
box of stuff from Sams room and put that up for a box that came down. I
finally got him to understand (I hope) that we usually end up with stuff
that's not going to be played with because what are you going to play
with half a playmobil farm, with all animals except one cat missing. Or
all the rails from the train set upstairs but the train down here... So
now Sam has to first put away everything in his room and then pick a box
that goes up before he can even go up to the attic. Seems to be working
so far ;-) Yesterday they moved all playmobil emergency srvices (police
and firetruck + personel) and all playmobil builders (truck and crane +
"builder guys") and the rest of the farm upstairs and he brought down a
box of Lego. I think this was the first time we made an uneven swap the
other way round *lol*. But he's getting into Lego these days and now he
has all the cool parts like blue "glass" for car windows and those
"lights" for the space vehicles and things like that. I just wish those
small parts weren't sooooo painful to step on ;-)

cu
nicole

"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article , Knit Chic
says...


"toypup" wrote in message
. ..
If a kid's birthday invitation states "No toys PLEASE," do you think
that
means no toys but other gifts are okay or do you think that means no
presents period? My first impression was it meant no gifts, but then I
go
to thinking. . . .sigh

I would LOVE for someone to give us an invite that said no toys! I would
gladly spend the money on a gift card, a book, a movie pass, anything but
toys.

??

So, what's stopping you now from spending the money on a gift card, a
book, a
movie pass, anything but toys?

Banty


I didn't say I didn't.
It depends on the kid ... for the most part it's either art/craft things (I
always as the parent first), books, or gift cards.
I would just like it if a parent put on the invite 'no toys'