Would you give your child secondhand toys for Christmas?
We came across an interesting and timely piece written by a cash-strapped mum who decided to buy her children some used toys as Christmas gifts.
In the article written on mom.me, US mum Emily Wagner spoke about the pressure she was under for the kids to have their “three-hour long” present opening on Christmas morning. To do this, she calculated she would need 10 gifts per child – which with her two children she calculated would cost her an “entire extra month's salary to do the holidays right and not come out looking like a major Grinch”.
At first she scoured charity shops for toys – making sure they were in decent condition and with all the pieces intact – from a place of financial necessity, hoping her kids wouldn’t notice. However, pretty quickly she began to feel quite differently.
“The Twister box was a bit of a mess, but who needs the box anyway? It's not like you need to keep it for directions,” she said. “This is when it occurred to me, why hide the fact that this loot is second-hand?
“As I shopped, I started to ideate on all the amazing ways I could present this concept of inheritance and the value in the thing itself, not the wasteful packaging, to my kids. What started out as an attempt at cheap-o corner cutting evolved into a full on life manifesto. It's not the package but what's inside!
“Why contribute to more wastefulness? We have everything we need; the rest is just icing on the cake. And of course, let's be grateful that we are in a blessed enough situation to even receive any gifts in the first place, gently used or not.”
And although Emily was nervous at first in case her kids hated the gifts, they went down a storm!
What do you think mums? Is this a great way to save money and cut down on waste? Should our kids be grateful even if they receive gently-used toys? Or would you not dream of giving your children secondhand toys for Christmas?