Did someone say Gifts?!
We’ve all seen the way kids run toward their Christmas or birthday gifts and how they eagerly tear the wrapping paper open to see what’s inside. That picture makes us believe that they undoubtedly love receiving gifts. But, how would you feel if I told you that as much as they enjoy receiving a gift, they’d also love to give it to others? It’s in our nature to fill with joy when we see how happy our loved ones are with the gifts we gave them. Children are no exception! However, just like anything else, they need a mentor throughout the process guiding them in giving pocket-friendly and thoughtful gifts.
YounGo Money has decided to put together a simple guideline for parents on how to teach their children to give meaningful gifts.
We’ve tried to make it a fun and educational activity about gifts and financial skills!
Table of Contents
Why Is it Critical to Teach Children about Thoughtful Gifts?
Instructing children about giving thoughtful gifts plays a vital role in shaping their money mindset and financial understanding. They’ll learn worthwhile lessons about the value of money. It’ll also help them know more about budgeting, saving, and intelligent shopping only by the simple act of gift-giving.
In addition, based on recent studies, handing over a gift to a loved one significantly boosts our self-esteem and happiness
#5 Superb Tips Helping Your Kids Give the Greatest and Most Thoughtful Gifts
The Old Plan and Save Method
If you remember an occasion like your friend’s birthday only 2 hours before their party, you can only get them a great and pocket-friendly gift when pigs fly! Use your past experiences and stories to make your child understand the importance of planning before buying or making someone a gift. Help them use a calendar to mark that occasion. The next step is determining a budget. Assist them in calculating the amount they have to save for the gift. This planning, budgeting, and “saving” process is a good practice for kids to learn the value of money and the efforts needed for a great gift.
Extra Earning, A Real Savior
Your kids may ask you to buy their friends a gift on their behalf or request some extra cash. It can also make things easier for you. However, the point of giving gifts is to teach our children financial skills and help them understand the value of money alongside thinking about giving their friends or family a thoughtful gift. You can encourage them to gain extra cash by doing additional chores or helping you around. Learn about different chores kids can do at home here.
Don’t Buy Daddy the Toy Car You Adore!
Children generally believe that everyone will fall in love with the same stuff as them. That explains the excitement they have to give their college sister a Barbie set or their favourite stuffed bear to grandpa. To help them personalize a gift, you can ask them questions like:
- What will make your friend (the gift receiver) smile?
- What do you think they like to do in their free time?
Make them brainstorm and write their thoughts down. For instance, Grandma loves Knitting and reading magazines. When she sees a cat, she smiles. Now they can come to a conclusion about possible gifts, making grandma a cat magazine or buying her new knitting yarns can be a personal and meaningful present for her birthday.
Savvy Shopping
If your children decide to purchase a gift from a store, you can show them how to compare products and prices, find the shops that most of the time have discounts, look for coupons, or search for the item online to find a better price.
That way, they’ll learn the principles of being a savvy buyer and saving money.
Homemade, Handmade, Super Special
Encourage your kids to craft gifts or bake cakes and cookies for birthdays and parties. Tell them if they make the present, it will boost its value. Help them bake their little brother’s birthday cake and decorate it with the candies he likes, or make Christmas cards and paint everyone’s favourite animal on them.
Not All Gifts Can Be Touched!
A thoughtful gift doesn’t have to be shiny and expensive. It only has to touch our hearts. Sometimes our time, attention, and love are the best gift someone can receive. For instance, if your children still don’t know what to gift their father for his birthday, You can encourage them to spend an afternoon with him and do his favourite activity. Maybe a couple of hours of fishing, painting, or hiking.
Re-Gifting
You can find all the ins and outs of re-gifting in this article. But, to explain it in a nutshell, Imagine a situation where you’ve received a gift that you don’t like or don’t use. But you know if your classmate had that gift, he would be super excited about it. Thus, the logical thing to do is to redesign it, wrap it in beautiful paper, and give it to the one you know will enjoy it.
This is considered a great way to go zero waste, clear out our closets, and make our friends happy.
Wrap Up
If we teach our kids how to give thoughtful and pocket-friendly gifts, they will learn a few financial skills, learn the value of money, and find creative ways to make others happy rather than spending lots of money on buying expensive gifts.
