Ideas for presents for DS1 11yrs

[TheLadyEvenstarsRomanCandle]

I feel he is too old for toys but what else is there?

I've just been looking at a four in one games table in the letterbox catalogue. Table football, air hockey, ping pong and pool.
How about a skateboard or bike?

He has a new BMX and he is rubbish on a skateboard lol...last time he went on one he jumped on the end and ended up with a grazed face and black eye.....

We haven't got room for a games table and tbh ds2 would wreck it (he is only 2).

DS1 10 yo is getting
mobile phone (aaarghh - but he is one of very few in his class who doesn't have one)
books
DS game
Lego he still loves as do his pals.

Or does he have a hobby - football boots, basketball, camping gear (for Scouts), music stuff if he plays an instrument.
Ipod?

Persuade him to write a letter to the man in red as a bit of theatre for ds2.

I have been hesitating for a while before posting this. But in the end I can't not post.

Do you not think this is just a tad insensitive, given your posts about not being able to afford school uniform - as well as the complete insensitivity of your post on Trinity's thread?

I wonder if you have any real comprehension about what it's like to not have money and/or to be suffering?

I'm really, genuinely, sorry if you are offended by my post. But please, please, think about others before you post.

BIWI, I apologised for the threads and the messages on the thread, I also had them deleted.

Yes I know what hardship is, at present I have a grand total of £3 until next week, that will be spent on ds2 for milk.

Regardless of whether I am struggling or not, my dc deserve christmas presents and I will again scrimp and save to get them.

As for his uniform, i managed to borrow the money off of a few people I know and got his blazer, tie and jumper, recontacted the school but the upper school as opposed to the lower school and managed to get a tracksuit which i have to take up and in at the weekend. I also got him 2 shirts and a spare jumper from the school. His trousers, I am collecting at the weekend when I visit my friends charity shop and pay her £3 for them, this money I am borrowing off of my mum who is a pensioner.

I will have £8 tomorrow in my local credit union and that will be going on electric or gas which ever is the most needy in the morning.

is there any reason why me asking for ideas for my childrens presents has any relevance on my struggling to buy a second school uniform for ds1 just 2 months after buying one? Lets face it, I made a fuck up and I apologised, there is nothing more I can do on that subject. However somehow i need to get my DC christmas presents so asking for ideas is not a crime.

As for trinity, I too am helping out as much as I can. You know asking for help for one thing or ideas for another is not a crime.

Yesterday I was stressed to the hilt but have begged and borrowed to get his uniform al but his p.e shorts and t-shirt.

So while you are thinking I am insensitive and slating me for asking for ideas, nowhere have i said I want to spend a fortune, actually if you look through you will see I have posted recently about buying their presents second hand for xmas as i did last year. I am just stumped as to what to get ds1 this year as he is too old for toys imho.

You will also see, I am trying to sell a buggy I bought 4 weeks ago for ds2 as I know I need the money to pay back the people i have borrowed from. I have a bigger pram which I favour anyway....just means walking more and not using the bus.

Clary, I bought him a cheapo phone for his birthday back in July so he doesn't need another lol (was £8 for those who think i over spend)

Shockers, he will do that anyway....its a big thing in our house well it was last year when he made it a big thing he did on behalf of ds2 who told the man in red what ds1 wanted lol

sorry TLE, my suggestions all a bit pricey

Didn't know about financial situation, apols.

oh sorry x posted £8 for a phone eh, that's interesting!

Where from if I might ask? (phone ignoramous heer)

Clary I bought it from Bounty the lady i bought it from had got it for her son and he wanted one with an MP3 player and camera whereas I wanted ds1 to have one to call/text when he was safely at school.

You seem to have a lot of initiative... I reckon you'll do him proud

Clary, no need to apologise....just one of those things atm iyswim?

I'm sure that you are being as prudent as you can be. But you still don't seem to get the fact that you expect to be able to buy stuff for your DS without thinking about the fact that you have just been begging for help to buy his uniform.

It's the lack of sensitivity that you need to be aware of.

BIWI, If you look at MY original thread I asked if anyone could help with any of the items....I didn't mention money...I already explained I was posting the actual list in the hope that someone had/knew a child in/leaving the school.

The second thread was not posted by myself.

So I didn't beg i asked if anyone could help with any of the items...If you look below, you will see what I posted. and the only reason the prices are there are because i copied and pasted the list from an email to his father.

By TheLadyEvenstarsRomanCand... Tue 03-Nov-09 21:50:07
Some of you may know that ds1 has had a hard time at school and as a result i had to pull him out.well i have found him a new school but the problem I have is financing the uniform I have not been so broke in a long time.

I have got to find so much by monday, does anyone have any 12-13 grey trousers, 12-13 white shirts, and any other bits that may be useful.

I still have to get all of the following

WA Boys Heavy Duty Twill Blazer with free tie £29.99
WA Pullover 100% cotton £14.99
WA White PE shirt £9.99
WA Black PE shorts £9.99
WA Navy Fleece sports Jacket £19.99
WA Navy Jogging pants £19.99
TRUTEX Shirts White twin Pack £9.99 (any white shirts)
Grey flat Front trousers £11.99 (any grey trousers)
Boy Banner Winter 3-in-1 Jacket £34.99 (this I can get any winter coat in place of)

The bit that shows I was not begging for money is this bit.....

I have got to find so much by monday, does anyone have any 12-13 grey trousers, 12-13 white shirts, and any other bits that may be useful.

But your original post was on Trinity's thread, where you actually mentioned that you needed £180.

You so did mention money.

You then tried to deny it by saying that you had 'forgotten' to take off the amounts per item.

Whatever.

The biggest issue here, though, is that you can't seem to grasp that going from supposed penury to asking for ideas for Christmas presents might not be a tad insensitive.

You really, really don't get it, do you?

BIWI I posted on FB "I am going to do a bank job who is up for it" didn't mean it though.

Yes I copied from an email....would you like me to forward it to you as proof? FGS I made a mistake asking for help, what shall I do never speak on here again incase it is remembered that I fell on hard times and in a desperate minute asked if anyone could help me???

I seriously hope you never fall on hard times, and then half way get what you really need. Because if you then try to look for something brighter to focus on you may be called insensitive.

Hi Lisa and Ben

As you know I have been looking for a school for K.

Luck would have it that I have found one and now I need to buy another uniform.

WA Boys Heavy Duty Twill Blazer with free tie £29.99
WA Pullover 100% cotton £14.99
WA White PE shirt £9.99
WA Black PE shorts £9.99
WA Navy Fleece sports Jacket £19.99
WA Navy Jogging pants £19.99
TRUTEX Shirts White twin Pack £9.99
Grey flat Front trousers £11.99
Boy Banner Winter 3-in-1 Jacket £34.99

I understand that you have children to look after, but I am hoping you will be able to help me with the uniform costs. This is the first time in 8 years I have asked you for anything.

The shop is

APT Clothing Company
26a Rye Lane

the phone number is * .

Thanks

there you go the email i copied it from. I have not had time between posts to type it out, just copied it from my sent box.

What you posted on FB is nothing to do with it.

You did post on Trinity's thread that you needed £180.

You didn't make a mistake asking for help. Goodness knows, that's exactly what MN is so good at delivering. But to ask for it on someone else's so desperate thread was really distasteful.

Especially as now, it would seem, your 'panic' is now over. Trinity's 'panic' is not over yet, and will not be over for some time.

If you can't see just how insensitive your posts are, then I despair.

BIWI, my panic is far from over, there are other things i NEED but I learnt from yesterday here is not the place to ask obviously. Just because I have not gone into every fine detail, which i would not dare to now, it doesn;t mean my panic is over. DS1's uniform was one of the things that I deemed the most important at the time of posting.

I apologised for posting on trinitys thread, had it removed as well.

I could have posted the full long drawn out reasons as to why I am so desperatly hard up at the moment but i did not think it would achieve anything. Maybe I should have but i didn't and because I said (and it was said in a jovial way, well thats how it was meant just as "Is anyone up for a bank job" was meant, sadly I have an odd way of dealing with/typing things which can often mean that they are misunderstood in the first place) can anyone send me £180 I was wrong, yes I was for typing that on someone elses thread, I have already said that time and again. But this thread had nothing to do with that, I was trying to look to something brighter than the shit I am in at this present time.

Sorry for trying to brighten my day. I doubt after all this anybody will bother reading this thread or be willing to offer ideas.

You could have CAT me if it bothered you so much but you chose not to.

also nowhere have I denied i posted on trinitys thread, I also sent her a personal message to apologise, and asked MNHQ to remove all the messages that related to my situation but not the ones where i was offering to help.

I'm still here...
I hadn't seen the Trinity thread before tonight but I've read through some of it and you seem very supportive of her.
I've been in the situation you find yourself in now. Single parent (?) with little support from ex. Don't let the criticism get you down... you did everything possible to rectify the situation and have apologised.
The way I read this post is that you were only asking for ideas.

Shockers, pretty much all right except I am not a single parent. DS1's father and I split 9 yrs ago and there has been little - Zero support from him.

DP has just changed jobs so not due payday yet. The problems arose when ds1 was badly bullied at school and I had to pull him out, but lets face it in reality we all know how expensive school uniforms are especially in secondary school, well he only started yr7 in september. But having had to find him a new school meant a new uniform as well. This schools uniform is totally different to the old one he was in. I was in a state yesterday as I was faced with finding £161.91p for the uniform for him to start on Monday. As it turned out i managed to get him a new blazer, jumper and tie, the school who had initially said they had no spare uniform did have some but from the older years (yr 10 and 11) so I managed to get the tracksuit which was £40, 2 shirts and a spare jumper from them. Am off to get his trousers and shirts from mates charity shop on Saturday, was meant to go today but couldn't face the journey with a whingy 2 yr old on the bus. and just have to find the £20 for the rest of the p.e kit.

There are other problems which financially we are facing for instance £349 per week rent, without household bills, food, travel etc, car payments, drier and dishwasher both broken within weeks of eachother, ds2's nappy wraps having come to the end of their lives and needing to be replaced, TBH the list seems endless. But The uniform was something deemed urgent.

Here I was just asking for ideas on what to get him for xmas, i didn't specify price range because I have no idea at all as to what to get him....