AIBU to tell my seven-year-old his birthday present in advance?

[Enjoyingmyicecream]

It's my son's 7th birthday next week. I have a very weird situation - he doesn't like surprises and is crying on and off as he wants to know what his present is. I mean sobbing and shouting. He doesn't want the present now, but he hates surprises and wants to know what it is. AIBU to tell him??

I was replying specifically to the pp who said she’d been through her entire life (“decades”) never not knowing what a present would be, it wasn’t about the 7 year old.

Yeah I can read thanks. It's his birthday. It's not an opportunity to teach him a hard lesson. I wouldn't make my child eat a food he hated but which was good for him in the long run on his birthday. I would do that one of the other 364 days of the year. It's called being normal.

It never even occurred to me that birthday presents (or even Christmas presents) are supposed to be a surprise.
My mum always asked do you want something specific or a surprise and I do the same.

@my son was like this. I used to wrap his gifts up in clear cellophane, tied with colourful ribbon. That way, he could see his gifts in advance, but still had something to open on the day. It was too stressful other wise.

Who says a present has to be a surprise? Lots of people hate surprises. This is a case of much ado about nothing. Just tell the poor kid and put him out of his misery.

Pretty pointless analogy comparing food which is eaten multiple times every single day to a birthday which happens once a year.

Obviously no one’s making their child eat broccoli on their birthday if they don’t like it. Birthday presents only happen on birthdays though.

Who said anything about a “hard lesson”? I suggested a gentle chat about why it’s making him worried.