Bad gift buyers

[SkyBlue1987]

I realise this is not an issue (and celebrations are not about the gifts) I just find it kind of funny and also slightly wasteful (as a minimalist person). Maybe I am a bad gift buyer as well 😆 My children have birthdays near Xmas and I just find it kind of odd that certain family members make no effort to find out what my children need, want, are into, or what size they are. I put a lot of thought into gifts and try find out ideas from the parents. But seems some people just buy the first thing they see. So far we’ve received:
A quite expensive toy that we already have (with no option to exchange).
Tees about 2 sizes too big.
Shorts when we are overflowing with shorts and in need of pants 😆
A very nice button up shirt that is the right size but that my son refuses to wear (he doesn’t do buttons).
A ton of Spider-Man stuff (my son has completely gone of Spider-Man this year 😐)
In the lead up to Xmas feel free to share your kids strange gifts - maybe we can all get some ideas to help us with gift buying!

The worst is when people ask what they would like so you give them an idea child would love, they say they will get whatever it is so you cross off your list and then they rock up with something completely random. It was my DDs second birthday recently and she was gifted clothing in all sizes but as big as 5-6 years! She is small too and not even in 18-24 months yet. Also received a huge range of hair accessories considering she’s still not got enough to scrape together into a ponytail…

Unless they’re close relatives who spend time with DS regularly then they’re just remembering that he really liked Spiderman, and have no idea that he doesn’t like buttons or that you need pants. Clothes sized for next year or season seem like a perfectly reasonable gift: children grow fast and unless you’re a good judge of a child’s height, there’s a risk that clothes sized for the child’s current age will be too small.

I’ll be perfectly honest and say I buy my niece gifts because it’s the done thing rather than because I really care whether she likes it. I don’t know her that well, so ultimately tend to buy her pretty generic “girl of this age” gifts. I don’t know many children so I’ve no idea really whether she’s large or small for her age, so it’s safest if choosing clothing to buy something a couple of sizes up and suitable for a different time of year.