Thank you letters

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My DC are almost 9 and 6.5. Yesterday before they went back to school I asked DH to get them to do thank you letters to a few members of family who had sent gifts but had not spent Christmas with us (he had day off work).

The letters are done but have been prepared on pieces of printer paper cut in half and basically consist of

Dear X

Thank you for [insert name of gift].

I hope you had a nice Christmas and new year.

Love [name of DC]

I said to DH that I thought these were pretty poor, they were the absolute bare minimum and the 9 year old at the very least could have managed 3 sentences, and she was given some nice cards and notelets for Christmas why hadn't she used those! He said he thinks they are absolutely fine.

I feel almost embarrassed to send them....what would you think if you received a note like that? I want her to do them again.

I think that's ok, I wouldn't mind getting that. Such an awful chore, thank yous.

Pretty shoddy, perhaps get her to draw some pictures on it. Your husband is taking the route of least resistance!

I would rather get that than nothing.

And yes, with practice letter writing does improve. Being able to knock out a decent thank you letter without it being an effort/imposition doesn't come overnight, but it will come.

If you coach them to write a little more each time (maybe add something they like about the present? some recent news?) it'll all come right in the end.

Shoddy. I'd rather get a nice but general e mail with a Christmassy picture if they can't be arsed to write something individual!

Thanks, I think the problem was DH just left them to it. If I had been there I would have said, say thank you for gift, say something about gift, tell them something you did over Christmas, wish them happy new year....

I think I will maybe get them to decorate the letters and maybe add a PS at the bottom.

I remember being made to write a whole page for a thank you letter. DH on the other hand I don't think has ever written a thank you letter in his life...

I think that's fine.

DD 5 was reduced to retching sobs after writing three thank-you letters which were only 'Dear (name), thank you for (gift), happy new year, love minivlad'. DH calmed things down a bit by getting her to draw pictures to go with them, but she hates writing so much that I can't expect any more than that this side of next Christmas. We have three more to go...

I'm not sure why they didn't use the notelets, though.

I am always pleased to get any sort of thank you letter (even a text or email would be better than just nothing - I don't hand my presents over in person so have no idea if they are received or not ).

My nieces used to write their letters before Christmas, and they would share the same one ie: "dear Auntie Rag, thank you so much for the lovely Christmas present, hope you had a nice Christmas and Happy New Year. love DN1 & DN2". I just smile when I look back on them.

I still have to force my teenage DS to write his thank you letters and he doesn't really write any more .......... and just re-hashes the same letter on the PC each year.

I have only ever done thank u letters for my sons christenings & I wrote pretty much the same thing but instead of on a blank price of paper it was printed onto a photo of my DS.
It honestly does sound fine, tbh he's male they do tend to do things the easy way haha, atleast he did them tho! Xx

DS1 is 8. He's dyspraxic and hates writing. His thank you notes are shorter than yours. DS2 was desperate to do his, only is is that he's 5 and its impossible to read his writing. I don't care, at least they're being done.

Gosh, I was so proud of myself for getting these finally done with kids last night - to read this! My kids are 8 & 6 and pretty much read:-
Thank you for the Christmas present/what it was
I had an awesome Christmas
Love child Xxx

They are nice fancy cards and decorated with Christmas stickers but as they had 8 cards to write each, I let them off with writing any more!

I am just pleased to receive a thank you, especially if written by the child (if old enough for this to be possible).

I think the point of a thank you letter is that the recipient writes it. I'd rather have "Thank you Aunty Geoffrey" in wobbly handwriting because the sender had loads to do than a 12 page printed missive from an already busy parent with just the name at the bottom

Fwiw I wrote "Thank you " and "Love from" on a load of blank cards and let my 3yo loose with the crayons and stickers

How many needed to be written by each child? If it's only three then maybe the older one could have added an extra sentence, but otherwise it seems fine.

Sounds fine to me. I think your family will be chuffed. My DC sent texts which I was perfectly happy with. It's the thank you that counts .

I think it is fine.

Maybe just include a nice Christmassy photo of the kids which will please any family member.

Thank you notes are quite rare these days, so I'd be fine with any kind of thank you note/ text tbh. We have written thank you notes since ds was born and he began signing his own name when he turned 3/ 4. Next year we'll see if he can manage a bit more by writing it all himself. However, we have never received any kind of thank you from most of my nieces or nephews who are a lot older. We tend to just ask ds to say a verbal thank you at Christmas as everyone gives to each other but for his birthday it's a thank you note. I think the content of your dc's notes is fine op, but could have been on nicer paper.