Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

to be spending the evening forging my 5 year old ds's name on his christmas cards?

47 replies

Goodomen · 11/12/2008 20:46

My dh thinks I have lost the plot, but my the last my 5 year old ds wants to do is write his name out 29 times, especially as it takes him a real effort to just write it once.
I don't want the other parents to think he can't even write his own name so.....

AIBU?

(In my defence so far all the cards he has received have been written by the child sending them.
It seems mad sending christmas cards at this age anyway.)

OP posts:

sunnydelight · 11/12/2008 21:49

Let him send what he can/wants to write and leave it at that. DD (5) didn't ask so we didn't send them - my competitive mum friend got her 4 year old to spend most of his weekend writing out Christmas cards and we were all supposed to be impressed. Most of the mums felt really sorry for the kid, we certainly weren't there going "oh, isn't Xs writing lovely" as we were obviously supposed to

Alambil · 11/12/2008 23:18

I'm going to do the same I think.... DS can't write very well at all (dyspraxia) and I don't want anyone to know either

Hulababy · 11/12/2008 23:23

Next time get him to make a card on one piece of A4 (you know where you fold it into quarters to get all the bits for inside and out on one sheet). He then only has to draw and sign once. Then photocopy them.

Or buy blank cards. Have him sign his name on a piece of paer, photocopy and pate inside card.

Or make cards on the computer and print.

Tortington · 11/12/2008 23:25

god - really! why do that.

Joolyjoolyjoo · 11/12/2008 23:26

Gulp- feel a bit bad now, as dd1 (4.11) has just spent ages writing hers out tonight .

In my defence, she was very enthusiastic, and seemed to enjoy it. I wrote the names on a sheet of paper and she copied them onto the cards/ envelopes- she seemed really chuffed with herself! Wouldn't do it if she wasn't interested, though! And I have been known to fake it in the past when sending cards to granny etc , so don't think YABU at all!

shubiedoo · 11/12/2008 23:45

But, surely neither the sender nor recipient can read or write?! It's completely ridiculous... waste of time, paper and energy.

nooka · 11/12/2008 23:51

dd loves doing cards, and always has, but she was quite old when she started school, and she did them herself for everyone she could think of. ds has only ever done a few, for friends he really likes. He is dyslexic, but I think it reflects their different approaches to life.

I've never done them for them, faked or otherwise (as far as I can remember anyway!)

Turniphead1 · 12/12/2008 00:08

My DD's school has introduced a rule - no xmas cards to all the kids in the class on "environmental grounds" ie the teachers have better things to do than spend the next week or so putting Reception children's cards to each other into book bags. Hurray!

Instead they can each write one card to the whole class, bring it in, it will be read out and put on wall. Bingo! Am delighted.

I have however sometimes forged DD's name and DS's squiggle on thank you cards just because I want to get them sent out and can't be ar*ed to nag her to sign her name. I use my left hand and it looks v authentic!

CuddlyUnderTheMistletoe · 12/12/2008 00:53

My ds is 9 now and getting cards from everyone at school.
Its not just dyslexia that I mentioned earlier, it's dyspraxia and adhd too and in some areas he is still working at reception year level.

Kids are bloody cruel so I would rather give them NO excuse to single him out and pick on him.

I don't mind wasting my time if it gives him a little breathing space.

piscesmoon · 12/12/2008 07:55

If you have to go to the trouble of photocopying a signature it all seems a pointlesss waste of time! I'm with shubiedoo.

HangingbaublesofBethlehem · 12/12/2008 08:17

I did get a touch paranoid as all of the cards dd has received were signed by the child including a very perfectly written long name - Samantha. My dd signed her 3 best pals and the the two cards for the teachers but apart from that I wrote them all.

WewishyouaBUMPERLICIOUS · 12/12/2008 08:29

Oh God, I hate writing my own cards - is this what I to look forward to in 3 years time?

needmorecoffee · 12/12/2008 08:30

dd is in reception and she has had a few cards. But I'm buggered if I'm gonna be sat doing 30 cards. She can't write and she never will. If I start now I'll have to do it every year!!

laweaselmys · 12/12/2008 10:19

Norks! That's horrible I hate it when people hold kids hands to make them 'write'. No they're bloomin' not! If they really have to write something themselves, I quite like the following the dots method, it might not be that legible but at least they've done it themselves and it's more fun for them.
I work with 4/5 year olds and it's not even remotely unusual that they would struggle/only just be picking up how to write their name at this point, it's really exciting for some of them, and they want to do it all the time - but it's intimidating for plenty of others.

christmasteafortwo · 12/12/2008 10:40

I left my 2yr old on word for two minutes - printed out the jumble of letters and stuck that in her Christmas cards as her christmas wish to all friends and relations!!!!

She wrote -

Hbcxxxxxc bx x x

Frdsxww olllllk ioooooiivvvvvvvvddddd

(I wrote underneath in brackets x x x love from DD)

You could do the same thing with a 5 year old but support them to actually get the letters right! Copy paste down the page print out cut out and then glue in - or if you are fabtastic with the ol' stickers print onto stickers and s/he can stick the name in - which is simple and good fun!!!!

DeckHallsWithFIMBOughsofHolly · 12/12/2008 10:44

Haven't read all of thread.

I did ds's.

My friend got her ds to write" happy christmas love from x "
out on a piece of paper then photocopied it on her printer and stuck it on the inside of all the cards

mistlethrushinapeartree · 12/12/2008 10:59

We've done ds's (3.5) this morning - spent the last 2 days making them (potato, christmas tree cutter and green paint day 1, gold glitter paint on ds's finger day2) and this morning he wrote his name in the one for his teacher, and put the first letter of his name in all of the other ones. I was a bit at him starting to get cards from the other children in his class. Luckily there are only 16 at present!

Lemontart · 12/12/2008 11:03

Who is it benefitting though? If there really are parents out there who think badly about a child whose parent has helped or written all of their cards, then should they really be pandered to?
DD2 has had two cards that I am sure have been faked and I just think it is really really sad. Not really any point sending them if their child is not even involved in a tiny bit of the process. We send cards as I think that it is nice for children to think about each child in turn, select a card etc. (DD writes "love XXX" and decorates the envelope, I write the rest in my own writing) We did 4 or 5 a night for a week and soon got them all done. She can also write "love" without any prompting now and her own name and handwriting is tons better for that 5 minutes daily practise for a while.
Last year she could not write her name so licked all the envelopes and stuck a sticker on each one. Still took part and felt they were her cards to give. Pointless otherwise.

mistlethrushinapeartree · 12/12/2008 11:15

LT - precisely. That's why ds was extremely involved in making his cards this year. I must admit that I did hold the potato, although he did press it down - otherwise all we would have got was green smears, but he did the gold all on his own! the first letter of his name is also clearly his own work

Original poster

Goodomen · 12/12/2008 11:32

Well I am impressed at the amount of time and effort some of you put into the Christmas cards! I must admit I would not hand make 29 Christmas cards for his class!

I have now given up on the forgery idea, and instead written most of them in my own writing, and managed to get ds to write his own name on the cards for the teachers.

Next year I'll have 2 dc's at school so may have to rethink the whole thing!

OP posts:

mistlethrushinapeartree · 12/12/2008 12:27

Goodomen - it wasn't that bad, although a bit of a production line. Also amused ds very happily for that 'after school' difficult hour...

HippoCriticGal · 12/12/2008 12:51

Oh no at some of this thread. Im guilty of getting DD to write her own cards. She's done about 12 so far and will finish the rest over the weekend.

She has received about 12 cards from her friends. DD opened each one excitedly and read out who it was from. Some were written by the parents and some have been 'signed' by the child. A few appear to have been written by the child.

DD has written the card and envelope herself. I wrote the names on paper and she has copied them out. Some are not as neat as I know she can write and was seriously thinking of getting her to re-do the worst ones. Now, having read this thread, I feel a bit sill and competitive, but you know what, I'll still get her to re-do them anyway.

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread