amyers12345 Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 My dh says not to be concerned at all about spending the same amount OR the same ## of gifts. My DD is 2 and DS is 7... They don't care at all, and i'm sure my ds will rip his open so fast he has no clue that they got the same amount or not. What do you do? Do you make sure they have the same number of presents, or do you keep track of price and even them that way?
EmConMom Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 Actually neither. I mean, one of them doesn't get 40 and the other 2, but it depends on what they ask for, how much it costs etc. My ds is 16 months old, he doesn't care, he did not ask for anything and probably has the least # of presents. My dd4 asked for many things (inexpensive) so she has the highest # of presents. (for example, she wants princess chapstick, stickers, paper to paint on, and TWO colors of pens LOL) My sweet stepdaught(8) asked for for exactly 11 things. I gave one idea off of her list to each grandmother and then bought everything else, she has the least amount of money. BUT she is only with us everyother weekend so she doesn't need a whole lot of stuff either. She still has things from last year she hasn't even touched yet. I honestly think it depends on the ages of the kids. When they get older and might care then I will watch more closely.
momof5plus1hubby Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 I did try to spend the same amount of presents and money the one year but it just didn't work LOL The older kids I set a limit because they know what the stuff they want cost. The younger ones get the same amount of presents, because they always count them LOL.
abentley Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 We really try to set a $$ amount every year. With 4 unmarried kids from 18-8 it is our only hope. Of course things come up.. so we try to keep the older ones in the same price range and then the little ones similar as well.
Jennifer0530 Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 Our kids 7,6, & 3 are really not into the expensive stuff yet so I usually pick toys off their lists that are about the same $$ amount and then buy them all the same number of gifts. EX: DS-6 loves the movie Cars so I got him the $20.00 lighting McQueen car, DD-7 wanted a doodle bear so I picked her up a $15.00 doodle bear and got an extra set of markers for $5.00 to put on the side of the box, DD-3 loves ponies so I picked up a Bratz Baby Big Pony for $19.00. I spent the same amount on all three and they all got a toy. Now for clothes we try to do the same thing but sometimes something will be on sale EX: we are getting all the kids two sets of pjs, well I found an awesome pj set that was priced at $12.99 the other day at Kmart for DD-3 which is what the other two got a set for and when I took it to the register it rang up for only $1.50. That just means I saved some money, we won't buy her another pj set to make up the price. Now when the kids get older and want more expensive stuff I will go with just a set dollar amount.
shopping mom Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 When they were younger and at home I did both. The older three are move out so I will spend more on the younger three than the older three. Two of my older ones will be spending part of Christmas at other places so they are all fine with this. I told the older ones last year that I would probably not do stockings for them this year but I enjoy it to much to give it up so I will surprise them with that little bit of extra.
bayhaysay Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 My kids all have the same number of presents under the tree. They are still pretty young (11, 5, and 3) so they don't really care how much we spend on each of them. We just try to get them some of the things they want. If that means we end up spending $400 on one and $200 on the other two, that's fine as long as they are happy with what they recieve.
fulfam Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 I don't really pay attention to how much each one gets or how much spent, since one is still little he will just turn 2 right before christmas he doesn't know any different. I get my 7yr old mostly what is on his list.
Melissa Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 My kids all have the same number of presents under the tree. They are still pretty young (11, 5, and 3) so they don't really care how much we spend on each of them. We just try to get them some of the things they want. If that means we end up spending $400 on one and $200 on the other two, that's fine as long as they are happy with what they recieve.Mine are 6 and (almost) 9 and we do the same thing. They have no concept of how much things cost anyway, but they would notice if one had 5 presents and the other had 10. We just try to get them what they want within reason.
elena_398 Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 I don't have a set amount for my kids, but try to even out the number of presents they get. My son is 12 and his presents are more expensive so I probably spend more money on him though
glitterstarr Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 I only have one at home to buy for so that makes it easy! And I go way over board on gifts for her. Her brother also spends a lot on her at Christmas. She will be 17 next week. When they were small we spent about the same amount of money on each one so their amount of gifts ranged on what they had asked for according to price. Most of the time our daughter got more gifts because she asked for smaller dollar amount gifts as to where our son asked for more expensive items. But money wise we spent the same on each one.
cleverbffool Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 Our kids 7,6, & 3 are really not into the expensive stuff yet so I usually pick toys off their lists that are about the same $$ amount and then buy them all the same number of gifts. EX: DS-6 loves the movie Cars so I got him the $20.00 lighting McQueen car, DD-7 wanted a doodle bear so I picked her up a $15.00 doodle bear and got an extra set of markers for $5.00 to put on the side of the box, DD-3 loves ponies so I picked up a Bratz Baby Big Pony for $19.00. I spent the same amount on all three and they all got a toy. Now for clothes we try to do the same thing but sometimes something will be on sale EX: we are getting all the kids two sets of pjs, well I found an awesome pj set that was priced at $12.99 the other day at Kmart for DD-3 which is what the other two got a set for and when I took it to the register it rang up for only $1.50. That just means I saved some money, we won't buy her another pj set to make up the price. Now when the kids get older and want more expensive stuff I will go with just a set dollar amount.That's what I do.
Kellylumbard Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 My oldest is 11 and in the past couple of years I have tried to spend close to the same amount on each child and make sure they have close to the same amount of gifts.
tootsieroll23 Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 I like to try and keep it around the same # of gifts, but DH thinks it should go by the $$$ amount. There is a 7 year difference in the ages of our kids, so naturally one is going to want more expensive items. So I still think it should go by # of gifts
Kellylumbard Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 It is hard because my oldest wants things that are more expensive so some years I do end up spending a bit more on him.
readerof3 Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 My two boys are so close in age (15 months) we have to buy the same amount or there will be fighting.WHen they were 3 and 4 we had to even buy the same toys.
Lvnlakers78 Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 We have two little ones (3 & 4) they live with us full time and our older two (9&11) spend Christmas with us and there other parents family. (Its the whole His, hers, and ours thing.) So we get the little ones more gifts because the older ones get two Christmas's. But the two younger ones get the same amount and the two older ones do to.
brynnfromtheblock Posted November 17, 2006 Posted November 17, 2006 My kids are young so they don't understand cost, but they do know if they're sitting there with nothing and their sisters still have presents to open.. so right now it's the number of presents.. once they older and get the concept of money it will be price
smurf94409 Posted November 18, 2006 Posted November 18, 2006 I spend the same amount of money for my boys. If one wants a present that cost alot, they know that's it. And that's really hard. The fun part is opening lots of presents, not just one.
alimfp Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 I buy the same amount of gifts per child, usually. And I generally spend around the same amount on each one, but not because I plan it necessarily.
zoemariesmamma Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 i don't think it really matters...i only have 1 child but have nieces and nephews...spent $100 on one and like $20 on another but got them both exactly what they asked for so i think that they will both be happy. usually works out that way..one or the other asks for a higher priced something..usually only get nieces and nephews 1 gift each plus stockings.
lindabacker Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 I have 2 kids, ages 8 and 4. I try to make sure they have the same number of gifts, but do not try to get the same monetary value, if I did the numbers would never ad up. They just did their lists for santa, daughter asked for 4 things - a nintendo DS lite with nintendogs, biggest littlest pet shop, fur real friends white tiger . My 4 year old son asked for the gameboy pack at tru, the train table set at tru and this car thing I ordered from lakeside.com. I was shocked when I realized that with just the things they asked santa for there is almost a 100 dollar price difference in favor of the 4 year old! LOL oh well as long as they get what they ask for and it is in reason. Still have to buy from mom and dad too. Cant let santa get all the credit :)
CrayZMama80 Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 In my situation it's difficult to spend same amount on kids. We have 4 children ages, 21,20,13, and 11. So the price range for items on their list varies. We say we are going to spend same amount but with the 2 oldest, it's difficult as their items tend to be a bit more expensive. We give it a shot every year. Our main thing, if they are happy on Christmas morning, then we did great.
Kandy Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 I try to spend the same amount but also have about the same number of items to open. If it means a bunch of little things or a box full of little things to even out the count.
laffnatu Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 With a 16 yr old and a 10 year old, it's hard to spend the same amount and have the same amount of presents. They both know that the DD - 16, will end up with less gifts but hers more and likely will cost more. Neither of them seem to mind it. As long as they get stuff that they like, they don't have a problem with it.
ms_mckenna Posted November 20, 2006 Posted November 20, 2006 We try and get around the same amount of gifts. So they can take turns opening gifts on Christmas morning. I do try and stay closer to the same amount of $ so I have been known to put more than one thing in a box to even everything out number wise.
juanadeal Posted November 21, 2006 Posted November 21, 2006 I try to spend the same amount with other people's kids. The older ones usually get one expensive thing like a video game and the younger ones get a few cheaper things.
cwife Posted November 21, 2006 Posted November 21, 2006 I try to always match the number of gifts under the tree.
Guest JeepMom Posted November 21, 2006 Posted November 21, 2006 I try to keep it all about the same. They each get different items but it's easy to find fillers to even it out.
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