Toddler Gifted - What to do?
rob333 (zone 7b)
21 years ago
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lynnsg
21 years agolast modified: 9 years agodlynn2
21 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
How do I explain to a gift giver - the gift is unwanted!
Comments (15)Thanks everyone! She is absolutely well meaning, and is definitely NOT a gardener! I will explain to her that it is not something I can keep, and the reasons why I can't. Shermann - unfortunately, there are a LOT of plants on the invasive species list that are sold at everything from Mom & Pop Nurseries to HD, Lowe's, etc. Here is the link that I use most often. The ones I could easily find today are the Barberrys, Privet, Euonymous, the Olives, the Jap Spirea, most of the honeysuckles and bittersweet (which I actually planted, but it didn't survive the drought 2 years ago and I will not replace it). Recently added, are butterfly bushes and bradford pears, both have been favorites of landscapers all over my area and have escaped and are crowding out the natural plants here now. Here is a link that might be useful: PA Invasives...See MoreGift for the toddler who has everything
Comments (15)My 3-y-o really liked the "grandma reading on tape" book. If you do that, leave a gap after the ringing of the bell for the kid to remember that it means to turn the page, get ahold of the page, actually turn it, etc. My mom kinda rushed that interval. I give my kids a box of cereal each Christmas--something sort of fun and out of the ordinary from what we normally buy. It goes away after they eat it!!!! As he gets older, maybe you can have some category of present like this that's slightly goofy, and only grandma and grandpa give it to him. That'll give him an expectation on a SMALL scale, and reinject some intimacy into the gifts. Each year he can wonder, what weird cereal, or what weird food, or what funny pasta shape, will G&G get me this year? (and get to know someone in Kenosha, WI, or some other test market, who can send you their test-market cereals!). Or what T-shirt w/ what funny saying or great picture? So he knows the category of gift, but not the humor and thought, etc., that went into it? My grandma made my bro's their flannel & cotton pajamas. My big brother hated to wear the shirt when he slept; it got in his way. But it was comfortable, so he took to wearing it to school. My grandma thought this was funny, so she took to making him 2 shirts for Christmas every year. She went all out to find the most goofy fabric imaginable--the most babyish, pajama-looking flannel she could find. The more infantile and obviously-sleepwear-looking the design, the better. It became a little joke between them. Same grandma loved choc.-covered cherries; my dad (her SIL) loved fruit cake. They always bought them for each other for Christmas. The funny thing is, boring and predictable though it was, it was a neat little bond between then. The rest of us shied away from buying those presents; we knew Grandma loved the cherries, but we wouldn't get them, bcs that was horning in on Dad's territory. Once my dad teased her by putting the cherries (a predictable box shape & size) inside a slightly larger box--she laughed and said she'd worried suddenly she wasn't going to get any cherries! My daughter once got all excited opening a present (the gift was $$) from an aunt, because the aunt had tossed in a bag of Teddy Grahams--"look, mom, FOOD!" she cried. I was tickled to open the gift from my aunt and find the Brach's Christmas Nougats I loved but couldn't find. Those are the gifts that are intimate, I think. They're fun, and they're not too serious. but they reflect a genuine interest in the other person, and an ongoing dialogue. True, they're fleeting, but the bond isn't, and the story isn't. And truly, ANY gift will eventually end up in the landfill! At 3 he's too young to get this idea particularly, but he can identify w/ food (or juice w/ Elmo's pic on it, etc.). Also, something he'll use daily might be better--aim low instead of high--a backpack, a stepstool, slippers, a shirt w/ a big old truck on it (C.W.D. has great pictures on boys' T-shirts), a plastic cup in his fave color, etc....See MoreAbout the gift wrapping. What do you do with money or gift cards?
Comments (20)I learned I have to be careful in how I present gift cards. Once I was giving two kids gift cards attached to wrapped candy bars. I gave one to the first child and was with her as she opened it and found the GC. Her sister was asleep, so I asked her to give the other candy bar + gift card to her sister later.... I found out the sister had not noticed the GC and threw it in the trash with the wrapper. Luckily, it was still there when I told her to go look for the GC with the wrapping paper. So however clever you make the presentation, make it obvious that there is a card, too....See MoreAlcohol as Gift...What to Do
Comments (37)food, we all have life choices to make and I respect all personal choices imposed only on oneself, as you obviously would seem to do. If there were ever a time in your life when you enjoyed wine with food, you know that many inexpensive wines, even as varietal productions as almost all are now, can have unpleasant or off flavor notes. If you haven't enjoyed wine with food before, you can take my word for it. Better wine on average is usually more expensive and usually tastes better but not always. The simple way to be sure wine to be used for cooking is suitable is to taste it first, of course....See Morerob333 (zone 7b)
21 years agolast modified: 9 years agodlynn2
21 years agolast modified: 9 years agoPeaBee4
20 years agolast modified: 9 years agorob333 (zone 7b)
20 years agolast modified: 9 years agoPeaBee4
20 years agolast modified: 9 years agoMomma_Bird_OH
20 years agolast modified: 9 years agoapoem
20 years agolast modified: 9 years agoeliza_ann
19 years agolast modified: 9 years agobabysmaid
18 years agolast modified: 9 years agoPNWhs
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agorob333 (zone 7b)
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agojim1961 / Central Pennsylvania / Zone 6
9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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