Buying Gifts for Others

This is actually part of a series called "Do Your Kids Need Money?" I know it is a bit late, having just passed the biggest gift giving holiday of the year. But now you have a whole year to prepare your kids to buy gifts for others.

Miss Love will be Five in a couple weeks, and this is the first year that she has expressed interest in giving gifts to other people. But since she did not have any disposable income this year (see taking care of other peoples things, and a future post) we had to be creative in the gift giving department.

I like to encourage her to make gifts. I make many of the gifts that I give away each year, so it is a habit I think will be useful to her forever. This year she made a book, The Fish Who Escaped, dictated by Daddy and illustrated by Miss Love herself. It was quite an impressive story for one not quite five, and, of course, Nana cried. Everyone else got felt star car fresheners. Since we used leftover craft supplies, there was no need for her to earn extra money for those gifts.

She really wanted to get Grandma and Grandpa clothes (I have no idea why). But since she didn't have any money, I let her "help" me pick out a turtle neck and a sweatshirt from the whole family.

I like that she wants to be generous in her gift giving. And I know that it can be frustrating to not be able to earn enough money to buy the big gifts. But if she can learn now to only buy what she can afford, she will be one step above those adults that are swimming in credit card debt.