I have a birthday party coming up for a toddler... and I'm kind of dreading it just because of the present opening process. Her mom makes her open up all her presents alone- which wasn't easy for her first couple of birthday parties. She didn't have the attention span or fine motor skills for it, and it took forever!
At least I learned from it and I'll be helping LO until she gets the hang of it and can open gifts at a good speed by herself.
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
We didn't open presents at my LO's birthday party. No one else seems to do that either. I don't think it's very interesting!
kiwi / 525 posts
I think helping is a good idea, and it means you're in the right position to encourage a suitable display of gratitude- I know kids can sometimes be a little underwhelmed by gifts of clothes etc, and I know I'd want to be able to whisper in their ear to do the Thank you/hug/kiss routine and not just move on to the next gift!
kiwi / 525 posts
@Andrea: Ah you have to open the presents, I love seeing kids reactions to them! My SIL never opens them, and it's always been kind of disappointing for me anyway. Then last October we caught her unexpected and my nephew ripped the paper off and was so excited to see Thomas trains etc, it made my day:)
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
@Andrea: Really? I love seeing what everyone gets people. Maybe I'm just nosy.
@aunt pol: This little girl didn't want to move onto the next gift.... she wanted to play with each thing that she opened right then. Her mom didn't let her though, and she was good at telling people thank you. Well the mom was, she hasn't had a birthday party where she talked yet.
kiwi / 525 posts
@artbee: Lol I'm nosy too so:)
It's great that the child does show the interest though! The best we saw was DH's niece, the year she was 4, I think, unwrapped everything, did all her thank you's properly, and then stood with her arms spread and eyebrows up saying, "Am I finished? Is there any more?" Her mother was mortified, but it was funny:)
GOLD / wonderful coffee bean / 18478 posts
@aunt pol: @artbee: nah, i'm glad that people don't open them around here!! my MIL seemed to be the only one who was disappointed at our party...because she is pretty nosey. LOL.
kiwi / 525 posts
Lol that's fair enough so. I guess I just like to see the kids reaction, so I know I'm doing ok at picking presents!
hostess / papaya / 10540 posts
LO hasn't had his birthday yet, but we are going to help him to speed up the process like we did for Christmas.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
LO hasn't had her birthday yet.. We'll probably help her for her 1st bday. 2nd and beyond she should be able to open presents herself.
We don't plan on opening presents in front of our guests this year. When she has birthday parties with friends she'll open presents in front of them.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
At my son's first bd party, he was a bear, he was crying and freaking out, no idea why, because he's normally soooo social.
Needless to say, we didn't open gifts, in fact, at one point, we had to bring him upstairs to calm down.
grapefruit / 4120 posts
We did NOT open gifts at his first birthday, and that was good... babies are very clear about what they love (toys) and what they don't love (clothes, which mom loves!) we took photos of him opening each gift afterwards although we had to cajole him into looking happy/interested with a lot of items. If you do this, you can include the photos with the thank you notes.
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