Do you buy your child(ren) toys or other gifts when there is no gift giving occasion? I really feel like less is more when it comes to toys, but sometimes it's SO hard to maintain this mantra when I see or think of something my son would really love in between holidays.
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Yes. I never thought not to. They don't get something every week, but definitely get some stuff between birthdays and Christmas.
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yes - but if its a $$ item then I tell them to add it to their wish list for Christmas!
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Yes, but not too often.
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sometimes i'll pick up a new truck or book here and there :).
we only give one gift at his birthday and one gift at Christmas, so it works for us!
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Yes but not often.
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I buy new books and puzzles fairly regularly.
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Yes but it is much less often than it was when she was a baby and I wanted to give her everything. The nice thing is we hardly ever have time to go into stores so she doesn't see that many things!
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I don't purchase a lot of things, but when I do I don't let it be determined by holidays.
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Yep, regularly. My son's birthday is in December and I would rather avoid making that month a free for all and I spread stuff out over the year as he becomes interested in different things.
eta: But even if my son had a birthday in another month, I'd still buy him things outside of gift giving occassions.
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His birthday is Dec 28th, so yes. A lot can change in a year regarding his interests so I have no problem buying him stuff though out the year. When he gets older I'll have him pick something to get rid of whenever we get something new. Right now I am all about buying him books and puzzles, since he is obsessed.
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I buy little things here and there that I think she will love. Mostly I try to save things to go on her wish list for birthday and Christmas though, since we always struggle with what to tell the grandparents and aunts that she wants. So I save the bigger things for them. We hardly give her any gifts at holidays so far.
Luckily her bday is July so it breaks up the gift giving times.
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Rarely, just because we have enough toys to fill our space. More would just be overkill at this point.
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Yes. Late November birthday and rapidly changing interests and abilities means we often make non-holiday toy purchases. Maybe once a month or so? We try to save big presents for the holidays.
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I buy books and other toys as he gets interested in new things. I prefer to space things out throughout the year. DH teases me because I always said I didn't want our kids to have too many toys, but I love seeing how he learns new things with new toys. He has more than what I imagined we would get him, but still not a crazy amount.
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Yes, mostly little things because we don't have that much space. His birthday is in December. We don't go overboard for birthdays or Christmas. He's so young still. I like picking up a little treat for him here and there- my husband and I get occasional treats for ourselves too.
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Yep, especially books, but toys too. Both my kids have winter birthdays, so they'd go a long time between gifts if I didn't!
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My poor J has a just before Christmas birthday. Anything warm-weather related is forgotten so come summer I usually get him a boogie board, scooter, bubble machine, etc., that kind of toy.
He did get a bike for his birthday from my brother and we just brought it out this month!
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I'm not against it, but we haven't had to buy toys in the 6 months since his first birthday party. We had so many toys from it that he wasn't old enough to play with or were meant for outside. I still have a few to go through. We were thinking about buying DS a little t-ball set though, but we haven't found one. We won't wait for some kind of holiday to give him something small like that.
I have struggled with what we should do in the future for warm weather types of gifts. I don't want him to feel entitled and like we buy him stuff all the time, but he has a November birthday, so there's not really an occasion to be giving him outdoor stuff.
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Yes. Her birthday is at the end of summer so I've given her a few outdoor/summer toys in the spring so that she can play with them all summer.
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My DD has a December birthday so I kind of feel like I have to, at least right now when she's little and her developmental level is changing so fast. When she's older, we might do a bigger toy for her half-birthday and keep things simple in between, but that won't be for awhile.
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We plan to start isolating gifts to holidays when she's older, like 3/4. Right now her brain is developing so quickly I feel like a small new toy every couple months is good for keeping her learning.
I don't think we will ever stop just giving her books whenever.
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I really can't imagine that I wouldn't. I got occasional toys year round. Though gifts are my love language, and my mother was aware of that on some level, even though I'm not sure love languages were even a thing back then. So if LO is like me, then definitely. If she's like DH and doesn't care (at least once she's older) then probably not. Though I also could see finding a toy *I* want to play with and getting it "for her."
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Yes. He has a January birthday, so he doesn't get much for his birthday. Instead we plan to do a "big" Easter or 1/2-birthday gift.
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Nope, not really. My kids have November and December birthdays, and I get them gifts that will grow with them or meet different seasons' needs. We fill in their large book collection with library trips. They have more than enough toys!
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We'll probably "gift" them all year, but holiday gift giving won't be a mega sport anyway.
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New books and this summer she's getting a bunch of new outdoor toys but otherwise no. Mt home is drowning in stupid toys. She may get a new bath toy here and there but that's it.
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I would say my spending habits on toys for LO are extremely minimal in general--even at holidays. This past Christmas, I spend about $20 on some clearance Melissa and Doug puzzles.
So while I don't save toys for holidays, I don't buy many toys at any time of the year. She tends to get a fair amount of hand me downs and we don't need much else.
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She gets small stuff all the time, but she's only 18 months old. We are definitely going to have to curb that in a few months, but I don't think we will do no new toys because she has a Nov birthday and LO2 will have a Jan birthday.
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Yes, I do when it seems like she's developmentally ready for something new. She's 19 months so she's still changing really quickly. I save big/expensive toys for holidays though.
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Yes, although not usually big ticket items. We just potty trained though and made multiple trips to the toy store for rewards
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Yup. Not necessarily big things but if something comes up that she really wants we get it.
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Yes, often.
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I don't really buy toys in general! We get so much stuff during holidays that we always have too much.
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I usually buy board games, art, books, puzzles often and save bigger things for birthdays, Easter and Christmas.
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Yes, her birthday is November so she needs stuff in between. We don't spend much though, we look for sales etc
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Yes but it's very small usually. Nothing over $15-$20.
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@lawbee11: I wasn't really thinking about books. I don't usually hesitate to buy those...
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@MOMTOLITTLEB: Very good point! My husband and I don't buy ourselves treats too much, but if something comes up that we want, like music on iTunes, we don't hesitate to buy it...
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@ShootingStar: We're in a similar situation. He got tons of toys for his second birthday in October and Christmas, and up until recently, I had no urge to get him anything new.
I worry about the entitlement issue, too. Perhaps it will be easier when he's old enough to have an allowance.
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44 comments