AIBU to worry my son has too little to open?

[Iloveegyptt]

my DS is 6 on Monday and I have just had to fix my car which cost me a fortune. I feel like I haven’t bought him enough. I have bought him a full sized football net, football boots, trainers a new football and an iPad. I just think he won’t be happy as it isn’t much to open.

My DS would have got football boots and a bag of sweets and I'd have made him a cake. I 100% don't understand the obsession with buying kids so many gifts for birthdays, especially when you are struggling to afford them. This is how children become spoilt and entitled. And if my DD had ever counted her presents and complained then she'd have got a clip around the ear.

Why is there so much pressure - from who?

Why?

Surely you're kidding

My son just turned 6 and I got him a small transformers toy and a second hand harry potter switch game. Probably cost me under £40 and our household at that stage was bringing home £12500 after tax each month.

A child needs their expectations managed. If you overload them with gifts, they don't appreciate the hard work and meaning behind those gifts and they suffer expectations inflation.

That's a lot of stuff you're planning to give already and really expensive stuff too!

Remember the days when your main present was a pair of roller skates or a Sindy? And that was fine and normal?

Is this a joke???

That's the gift list for a spoiled brat!

Because no 6 year old needs their own brand new iPad

This is absolutely brilliant. Kids don’t have hobbies anymore!

I don’t think any 6 year old will be excited about shoes for their birthday…
my DS got an iPad when they were six, for plane journeys and homework (their school has everything on line - very annoying) - but otherwise I don’t think they need it.
there seem to be very few actual things that a 6 year old would like, like Lego or Playmobil..

Please send the ipad back and get some proper toys.

some Lego, arty bits, lots of books…

when you say pressure, do you mean from friends?? I understand peer pressure for tech but usually this comes around secondary school. You need to teach your kids now how to live within their means. Where do they think the money comes from??

Yet you didn't learn anything from how you felt when your daughter counted her presents.

An iPad is MANY trips to the play centre with lunch. I think he'll get more out of those trips than an iPad.

How lovely. He wil be delighted. We all have this fear. You have it sorted x

I agree so take it back but they also don't need another 20 pieces of that to open either.

I can understand the pressure of feeling like you haven't got enough...sometimes when we are in it we can't see the skewed way we might be thinking. This is more than enough and I agree that perhaps you could return the iPad - buy a few little bits and pieces if you really want them to have the fun of opening but I think it's so easy to fall into the trap.of.buying way too much and children do lose appreciation for things if they are getting present after present.

Spend some of the money on a little day out for your family instead...I truly think this means so much more.

I also like to get my son to choose toys of his own to donate, especially after a birthday or Christmas when there is a new influx of toys/gifts. It makes them think about passing things on to others too!

Those are Ok big gifts. Each one of them is a focus gift, like your big Santa present level gift. Why so many big gifts? That's nuts. And a 6 year old being upset at number of gifts is equally mad. My 8 yr old wants about 3 different things of that level of Xmas and spends a fair amount of time deciding out loud which one he's asking Santa for. And we're not skint just not spoiling them

That’s far too much!

A six year old should not have an ipad.

I get you at 6 it can be a bit about volume get some crafty stuff socks boxers and a few sweets
but a budget of between £50 and £80 is more than enough
as they get older and understand the value of things then one gift depending what it is is more than enough

Poor kid

@hourspassed if you were buying your child football boots then presumably he already owns a football.
The OP is giving her son boots + a football (and goal)
He wouldn't be able to do much with the boots without a ball. It's not over the top to be getting him boots, ball and goal.
They all go together.

Is football not a hobby?
Which it seems the OP's son is into because she's got him football stuff.

Gosh, my sons 5 next week, he has two Lego sets, a few random very cheap toys and will wake up to ballon’s and a banner and be delighted.

Like everyone else i‘d take the ipad back. If you don’t need tbe money you could pop in it a savings account for him later. I think everything else is easily enough ( as long as that is actually what he wants)

And an iPad 😂😂😂

Please don't give a 6 year old his own ipad. They're so incredibly damaging.