Adult children and presents

[SugarCanes]

Should adult children spend the same amount on parents for Christmas, as parents spend on them?

I know it's not all about money (obviously) but I tend to spend £20-£30 on each parent at Christmas. Whereas they probably spend £50-£60 each on me.

I am late 20s, have a job and mortgage to pay, but I am just wondering whether adults my age tend to 'match' what their parents spend on them for Xmas, or if it's a given that parents will always spend more no matter how old their child is?

Surely it has come down to how much you can afford and not buying stuff just to make it up to an amount you should.
DM has stopped buying for my family over the past few years and I did buy her gift for £10-15 because I felt I should as she was my mum but have decided to stop this year.
I don't know if she will be disappointed or not but she doesn't seem to bother even with birthday cards for my DC so not sure she should be surprised.

Nope. I'm nr 40 and I only buy token gifts because they never want or need anything
I prob spend max 30 on them each
They each ( divorced) spend about 50 on me and dh and 50 on each of the 4 kids

I still spend quite a lot on my adult DDs as I can afford it and it gives me pleasure. They both live in London on okay but not massive wages. I don't expect them to spend much on me or DH. What I most want is to have them here at home (in Scotland) to spend time with us. That is the best gift I can get.

My parents spend more on me and my sister than we do on them. My mum tells us both to do a £50 budget for her and my dad combined, but they easily spend over £100 each on us (age 29 and 30. Both have partners, one has child)

I spend much, much more on my parents than they do on us. They've spent years treating me and now I want to treat them. There's been years when I've spent more on my parents than I have on my children.

PIL we probably match but spend less on them than we do my Mum and Dad.

My mum always spends more, I try to match her but then she just gives me more for my birthday 🤦🏼‍♀️ She always says We are her kids and she is suppose to spend more on us. I just spend a little more on my kid sister. She won’t take money for looking after the kids and never lets us pay when we go out for meals. I have to sneak the bill sometimes just so she can’t pay. She then spends 2 weeks trying to give me the money back. I wanna give back as she’s given so much to us and I can never thank her enough. Me and the kids would be lost without her. I get her personal presents. I got her a canvas of the dog, a personalised calender which I get her every year and she loves it and then got her a new bra.... bit strange but it’s an inside joke 😊

We always spend a lot more than they do - we aren’t paying a mortgage and we don’t have to shell out for childcare.,
TBH I’d be appalled if they spent a lot on us - they have far more important things to spend their money on. I always tell them to get us token presents only.

Unless I know that there’s something specific they want, though, it’s usually something relatively inexpensive to open, plus cash.

Parents always spend more and always they do not want us spending money on them. They are considerably better off than we are and have no-one else to buy for so I do think personal circumstances come into it.

Depends on income but usually id say the parents should spend more on their children not the other way round... and only be matched in value if the adult child is a high earner or something.
My parents spend around 100 on me and I'm in my thirties... theres no way I could spend a hundred on them I wouldn't be able to buy gifts for my own children if I did that!

We spend about £300 each on our DC and they buy us little tolen gifts back. It would annoy me if they spent more as they are young and need their money more than I do.
My own DMum is 86. She still moans at me for spending "too much" on her, this year I spent £130 on gifts for her and she gave me £500. When I protested she said "you will always be my child"
I kind of know where she is coming from as I do the same to mine.

We spend about £150 on both sets of parents so £300 between the 4 but I tend to spend more on the mums.
Parents probably spend £200 on me, £150 on DH and £100 on DS (because DM thinks I buy him too much)
PILs spend £500 between me and DH and about £180 on DS.
We probably all earn a similar amount of money