Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
She spent $2000 on three kids so when you break it down per kid it's a lot but it's not an outrageous amount. I would never buy that much just because I hate clutter and I wouldn't want all that stuff in my house.
Who cares? How does this affect anyone but her own family?
We don't know their situation. Who are we to judge?
I think it is excess, but perhaps they do all their shopping at Christmas. My family had very little money growing up, so all my clothes for the year were usually given to me at Christmas to help fill in the tree. Or maybe she finally had one of her children home for Christmas that had been away in the service.
The tree is also against the wall. I doubt there's anything behind it. I would venture to guess that if I stacked my son's gifts into a single pile, they might be as high too, because he got some large gifts this year.
You have no idea what is happening in their world. Why judge?
Who cares? How does this affect anyone but her own family?
We don't know their situation. Who are we to judge?
I think it is excess, but perhaps they do all their shopping at Christmas. My family had very little money growing up, so all my clothes for the year were usually given to me at Christmas to help fill in the tree. Or maybe she finally had one of her children home for Christmas that had been away in the service.
The tree is also against the wall. I doubt there's anything behind it. I would venture to guess that if I stacked my son's gifts into a single pile, they might be as high too, because he got some large gifts this year.
You have no idea what is happening in their world. Why judge?
It doesn't effect me...it's just obviously ridiculous to buy and wrap that many gifts for 3 kids. Come on...it's obvious. And then to take a braggy pic and post online. Even if they don't spend a dime all year, no kid wants to open that much crap. I way over spent one year, did not cover the tree by any means. It was for 4 kids and 3 adults. The kids got bored of opening gifts.
The truth is, lots of parents try to repair their own painful childhoods when faced with our kids childhoods. Holidays are hot spots for that, because they are very memorable. And many parents try to "fix it" for their kids...when their kids don't even have a broken childhood. But watching mom spin out over her own childhood is damaging as well.
I don't think it's anyone's business, really. Plus, we don't know what's under that tree. For example, as a child, I got a lot of presents. Nothing quite this extreme, but more than many people would think was necessary. However, my parents didn't really have a lot of money, and they used my dad's Christmas bonus to buy a few gifts that we really wanted AND to stock up on things we needed. I seldom got much of anything outside of Christmas or my birthday.
So, I got things like school supplies at Christmas -- things that had worn out/were running out from the beginning of the school year -- but maybe they were the "cooler" supplies than what I would have normally gotten. Think Lisa Frank notebooks instead of the plain notebooks. So, fairly practical, but slightly upgraded as a gift. Winter clothing that I (and my brother) needed anyway were purchased and wrapped up. That type of thing.
I also did a lot of reading, and I liked playing outside with things like sidewalk chalk and jump ropes and bubbles and such. I liked coloring books, markers, coloring pencils, crayons, construction paper, glitter and other art and craft stuff that came from the Dollar Tree and other similar places.
So all in all, I got a few nicer "Christmas" gifts, a lot of things that my parents would have needed to buy for me anyway, and lots of small gifts that didn't cost much at all.
What I'm saying is that maybe those gifts aren't all Playstation games and tablets and $50 toys. Some might be necessities, some might be inexpensive toys that the kids might really love and that might keep them entertained all year long...
Maybe she's related to my sister-in-law who just looooves gifts under the tree. We gave her a silver service for twelve once and individually wrapped each and every piece of it. She just adored that Christmas. So, perhaps there's a zillion packages under the tree but each piece of some sort of set is individually wrapped?
We used to get tons of gifts on Christmas, easily $1000 a pc spent on us or more (got a new dirt bike one year plus presents). Me, my brother and sister all turned out normal. No sense of entitlement at all from being "spoiled" all them years. It was some of the best times of my life waking up and seeing a living room full of gifts. I think jealousy plays a big roll in some of the negative comments. If you can afford to buy that many gifts then good for you. Posting how many presents are under the tree is a very common thing so it's not like she was doing anything out of the ordinary to seek out attention. That's about all I see on every holiday, pics of food, pics of presents, pics of easter baskets and so on.
I already posted this on another thread. $2000/3=$667 per child
That is not a huge amount of money. Buy your kids a cell phone, tablet or laptop and you're close to half of her cost. I wouldn't buy my kids that many gifts, but it doesn't bother me that she did. I don't know what is in the presents. Different people spend money differently and as long as her and the kids aren't a drain on society and are not negatively affecting others, then I'm content to let those presents be their business with no concern to me.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
