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Birthday gifts

34 replies

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 06/07/2020 17:28

I have live with dp and his two children and my own dds. Dd has a birthday coming up and my family usually buy her sibling a little gift as well. Dp is worried that his dc, who are with us on the day, will feel left out as they won’t get anything. He thinks to avoid this we should just do presents for the birthday girl. I’m a bit annoyed though because why should my dd miss out if she is used to getting gifts on her siblings birthday? I can’t expect family to buy for kids not biologically related to them!

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Farontothemaddingcrowd · 07/07/2020 22:48

Sorry this was a reverse and dp was quite annoyed with me for posting it. My dc are the step kids in this scenario and are the older kids. I just wanted to check if it was right to expect them to be treated the same. To be fair, dp went out and bought extra Easter eggs to even stuff out and he has told his aunt not to buy a gift for his dd as there are too many of us now! So I was a bit unfair to him, as he is trying and his family will get it eventually.

It is hard because my dc do not have a loving family and their own father is neglectful, so they don’t get the gifts elsewhere. But dp is doing his best, so I was unfair to post this reverse. Thanks for the responses- I do agree they should be treated equally.

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Raella50 · 07/07/2020 23:27

I do sibling gifts (just tokens) and would probably just get all the other three a little something in your position. Tell the rest of the family not to anymore.

Namechangex10000 · 08/07/2020 07:50

I’d be fuming if my parents did this, would you be ok with it if it was the other way around? And frankly giving the step children visibly different Easter eggs is vile.

Namechangex10000 · 08/07/2020 07:52

My partners family barely acknowledge my kids yet my mum treats my step daughter the same and I wouldn’t have her do it any other way. I’d be fuming if I was your partner too, are you his family or not? I think my dp is a dick for not standing up for us in that way so I think yours is too.

Farontothemaddingcrowd · 08/07/2020 09:26

I think dp is trying now. He told his aunt not to buy his dd the extra gift which is good. He bought extra eggs, though I’ve said that next year he needs to speak to his dad directly to ensure that doesn’t happen again. His family are over quite a lot, so I’m hoping they will get closer to my dc over time. I don’t think he’s being a dick, this is a learning curve I think. We are getting married in December so that might help.

It’s all equal on my side, my DM is equally uninterested in all the children Grin

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aSofaNearYou · 08/07/2020 11:57

To be honest you seem a whole lot more unreasonable now you have revealed this was a reverse. I still stand by the fact that the best solution is to not buy token gifts for any of them, but I think your expectations are entirely unreasonable. This jumped out at me:

He bought extra eggs, though I’ve said that next year he needs to speak to his dad directly to ensure that doesn’t happen again. His family are over quite a lot, so I’m hoping they will get closer to my dc over time.

So his family doesn't really know your kids, yet your partner has you ordering him to ungratefully tell them off for not equally treating your kids as much as his own, who they've presumably known and loved since birth? It comes up all the time on MN, but I just cannot understand how anyone can't see how totally self absorbed it is to expect grandparents etc to automatically view children they barely know, in the same way they view their grandkids, just because their parents are now in a relationship. I'm not a fan of any kind of demands of people when it comes to gifts, anyway, so if I was your partner I would have been absolutely mortified if you had "told" me I had to tell my dad that the gifts he bought for my kids, and the tokens he kindly bought for my partner's kids, were not good enough and he was an arsehole for not treating them all the same. It sets up a tone that the gifts are an expectation and a duty, too, rather than just something affectionately given by one loved one to another, which I think is really rude.

I've never known anyone do something like the Easter Egg thing maliciously to "make a point", he probably just didn't get them a big present because you know, he doesn't really know them and genuinely doesn't see it as his responsibility to treat them like his grandkids. He's just a kindly adult who occasionally sees them. He probably thought he was being nice by getting them something even though he doesn't have a particularly strong relationship with them, which in my opinion, he was. If I were your DPs family and I was getting these telling off's, it would really put me off getting to know your kids better as you hope they will. I think going in with a load of demands and expectations of people because of your decision to blend a family is really entitled and damaging.

Itsjustabitofbanter · 08/07/2020 12:24

Have you showed him this thread?

Drawingaline44 · 08/07/2020 18:49

I agree with your DP here. The easiest way to resolve it is for only the birthday child to get something. Tell family why and I don’t think they will see it as an issue!?

I think they all need to be treated the same. I have had the conversation with my family that they can take what they would usually spend on my DC and divide between my DC and DSC to make it fair, that way I am not asking them to spend any extra, just to include DSC in the gift giving too. I am happy with that, as my DC will get the same in return so no one misses out, they actually get more out of it in the long run as DPs family buy for them now too!

The sibling doesn’t need a gift it’s not their birthday, so they can have their gifts on their birthday. That way it’s more fair.

MeridianB · 08/07/2020 19:51

So is it his children that both get gifts on each other’s birthday or yours?

Either way, could it just stop this year? Better to celebrate a birthday for each on their special day than expand gift-buying x4.

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