to teach my children to say, upon receipt of a present, "Thank you very much" -

[coldtits]

... and nothing else. Not a further word must they utter on the subject of presents unless they are specifically asked a question.

My two girls (7 and 5) are fine, but ds (3) is still not quite there. My frined gave him some nice T-shirts for his birthday with motorbikes on (his previous passion) Unfortunately, my friend hadn't seen him for a while, and he is now obsessed with dinosaurs and only dinosaurs. I struggle to get him dressed in any top that doesn't depict a dinosaur. He said "I can't wear this- it doesn't have a dinosaur on it"

He got a dressing down from me, and was made to apologise, but he still says "Is it a dinosaur?" before opening any present, and is perceptively pissed off if it isn't I AM trying, honestly!

I remember the Christmas when DS got 4 copies of the "Dangerous Book For Boys". The final one came from his godparents - he smiled sweetly (was about 9 I think) and said he would enjoy it then raced upstairs to hide the other three from their daughter.

When they went, I told him I was so proud of how he had handled it. He offered me three for the birthday present box for a tenner each .

MY dd does this very occasionally, my mum bought her lovely tshirt with cat on, it was hardly out of the wrapping before she'd said I don't want this can you get me one with no cat. Also my mum and another tshirt, a pirate one to match ds's she took one look at it and just said no thank you and gave it back. I died a death both times but thankfully my mum just laughed, they are taught to say thank you regardless honestly.

YABU I teach my DC to say 'is that it you cunts?' Obv your children are better brought up than what mine are innit

I am extremely fortunate to have a dd who is super-enthusiastic about everything. I don't think she has ever received a gift about which she hasn't been able to rave spontaneously! :)

I am extremely fortunate to have a dd who is super-enthusiastic about everything. I don't think she has ever received a gift about which she hasn't been able to rave spontaneously! :)

Mine now know not to be rude, and manage gracious(ish) thankyous most of the time, but DS (7) still doesn't quite get the whole politeness thing. On receiving a duplicate gift on his birthday he said "Wow, thanks; I've already got this but now mummy can swap it for the really cool Lego set in her present box!"

FunnysInTheGarden - is this your child?

lucky1979 he is freakishly similar........

My SIL spent along time complimenting a specific scarf of mine and so i got her one for Xmas but then overheard her saying 'oh not another bloody scarf'. We have given them some great gifts though over the years (mostly things they asked for) but they never say thankyou - ever!! Her son struggles to say thankyou too.

We have started opening our Xmas gits already - only one small one a day each so they can have more time enjoying each toy. I get them to buzz the giver after the opening and say thankyou. It's quite a quick and easy way of doing it as we send thankyou notes/drawings other wise.

YANBU at all to insist on a 'Thank you' and nothing else. My DD and DS (both 4) are generally speaking very good at remembering their thank yous. However, poor old DD is painfully shy, so her 'thank you' is generally a bit quiet and rarely accompanied by eye contact. DS, on the other hand, will give a nice, big, enthusiastic 'THANK YOU!' and then go on to make inappropriate comments. It was their birthday a couple of weeks ago and as he was opening a card my friend had given him, he asked 'Has it got any money in it?' The ground could have swallowed me up , but luckily my friend is used to small children and saw the funny side.

I went to the shops yesterday and treated them both to a new outfit. When I picked them up from preschool I told them that I had a present for them at home on their beds. DD went upstairs and 'oohed' and 'aahed' at her outfit, but DS ran straight past his bed, going 'Where's the present?' When I pointed out that the present was the new outfit, he looked devastated and wailed 'That's not a present, that's CLOTHES!' He has now had an in-depth lecture on how not all presents are toys - information which will hold him in good stead for when he opens his present from Grandma...

At my sixth birthday party I received a present I already owned. I can still remember the sheer confusion/terror/panic of not knowing what to do or say to my friend who gave it to me, and looking at my mum like, "Help Me!" She saved the day by saying "Oh isn't that a lovely gift!" and then I realised I was supposed to say thank you and not mention that I already had one. Being a kid can be very confusing sometimes!

Do people not tell gift givers if they've got duplicates? I always keep receipts and wouldn't be offended if a child politely told me they owned something already so I could exchange it for something else.

Thats a good question Tyler. I would much rather a duplicate gift was exchanged for something else and would have no problem with someone telling me they already had it. In fact, I make a point of asking and telling them it can be changed if necessary.

I have taught my DD1 to say thank you very much for her and her sisters present. Job done! So I thought until yesterday my friend gave her presents, she said "Thank you very much" then "Whats next?" Arghhhhh...

Tyler I had the situation at DD's 1st birthday when she got 3 sets of 2 presents. I didn't say anything but just chanced my arm and took them back, one was a disney store toy so that was fine, another was sold a lot of places so I went with asda. They exchanged it no bother. I then kept the toys I had exchanged them for and distributed them throughout the year as she did receive a ridiculous amount of presents!