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Yes. My extreme right wing fundamentalist Christian relatives gave my son a book from that perspective and did the same several years later with my daughter.
Those are inappropriate gifts. They know our beliefs. It was wrong.
Yeah..I'm pretty picky.
But he has no idea right now...he's 1. I can remove things I don't want him to have with no muss or fuss.
Right now the issue (and a blessing, I know) is that he has way too much stuff.
People shower him with presents and clothes constantly. I honestly had nothing to get him for birthday or xmas. But I get that is a blessing.
The fight we'll have is when he gets older. I don't want him to be superficial, materialistic, or entitled. With a granddad who worships the ground he walks on and the other granddad asking if he needs an ipad for xmas (his own, so he doesn't play with ours - the answer was NO, he is ONE), this is going to be a tough road to hoe. Again, blessing, too.
We're going to learn a lot about donation.
LOL that sounds like our situation too! I mean I'm not complaining, this kid's really blessed to be showered with so much attention - he's the first grandchild on both sides and has doting grandparents and an aunt; my MIL especially buys tons of stuff to make up for the fact that she can't spend as much physical time with him as my parents, and she was saying similar things about him needing his own laptop/ipad - he's 3! and we already spend way too much time trying to get him away from techy stuff and out to play and run around.
one thing that bothers me is people giving a toddler food as presents without asking parents if it's okay first - like candy, especially the artificially flavored and colored crap that I don't think anyone should be eating, or hard candy for a child under 3 that he could choke on. Thankfully everyone in my family knows better but I've had a friend give a bag of horrible dollar-store candy for DS who was two at the time, thankfully she gave it to me to give to him, so I thanked her and promptly threw it out once I got home.
I never minded since I didn't have to let my kids have anything I didn't want them to have. The only time it ever came up was BEFORE my first was born. People at work wanted to pitch in and get something for the baby and someone came up with the idea of one of those big bouncing horses on springs (this is going back 20+ years...don't know if they still exist) and I told them to please not do that since my house and my childs future room were really small and big items really didn't have a place. They got me a carseat instead .
Normally the sky is the limit with me. The issue I have with this is when the parents do express a wish (my oldest is on the autism spectrum and, having seen some of the other children at the pediatric center with hopeless video game addictions, I didn't want him to have any games) and people like my in-laws go against the wishes, especially in an older child where the gift will set up a power struggle (it's easy to hide something away from a littler one). So I ended up being the "bad guy" of course, setting timers every time my son would play so that he wouldn't get hooked. However, I was successful and today he is a non-video-game-addicted adult
I didn't think I cared, but this year my sister gave my 10 year old thigh highs with ruffles at the top, a sequined cocktail dress, and high heeled boots.
Yes. My extreme right wing fundamentalist Christian relatives gave my son a book from that perspective and did the same several years later with my daughter.
Those are inappropriate gifts. They know our beliefs. It was wrong.
I never really care, we are grateful for what they receive, however, if someone asks for a list or suggestions , why not go w/the suggestions rather than get something completely not your child or just ridiculous.
Case & point... SIL asks for ideas, I said " books, ( gave her titles & authors for ease), craft projects or leggos. My youngest got none of this & instead, received a stuffed dog that barks "jingle bells".
Fun for the 1st 1/2 hour & that's about it....
So far it hasn't been an issue, but DH's sister has been gifting us with her daughter's former pageant clothing. Not a fan. At all.
And MIL is super into dolls/dollhouses. Not my thing at all. But if DD ends up loving them, then that can be their special (stupid, lol) thing to share with each other.
As long as things aren't overtly sexual, violent or hazardous, I'm ok with it. So far.
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