I'm done with birthday gifts for my kids
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All these gifts aren't just so much excess stuff; they also represent a remarkable amount of money and time spent by well-meaning parents with already full to-do lists. I know their pain. I can't tell you how many times I've raced through the toy aisle 20 minutes before a trampoline-park birthday party searching for something — anything — to give to an elementary school kid I couldn't pick out of a lineup.
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Which is all just a long way of saying that while I love my kids and want them celebrated (and while I'm deeply grateful to all my friends and family for the presents), I've been looking to get out of the kid gift racket for years. As the Globe
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But I think I've found the perfect escape.
My salvation arrived, as salvation often does, from Canada. A dear friend who grew up in Toronto told me about a north-of-the-border tradition that we imported tariff-free for my daughter's party this year. It went better than I ever could have expected, and it goes like this.
Instead of bringing a present, my daughter's friends were given the option of simply Venmoing her whatever they would have spent in cash on a gift. We then took that pool and split it in half, one part of which went to a gift she really wanted while the other went to a charity she picked in advance. (There are websites that manage the whole process for you — notably the Canada-based Echoage — but some do take a percentage in fees.)
A few kids brought presents anyway, and I admit that my daughter first looked disappointed as she silently compared this year's haul with last year's. But then I reminded her that there was also the cash. 'How much?' she said hopefully. The total was a little more than $200. A smile spread across her face. But that grin wasn't the only benefit of our new approach to gift-giving.
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Another was the meaningful decrease in our production of plastic waste. Most of the toys my kids have previously received are plastic, and most of that ultimately ends up in landfills — 80 percent, according to some
A third benefit, however, is likely more important. Alison Body, an honorary fellow at the University of Kent with an expertise in children's participation in charitable giving, and others have
But the last advantage is my favorite. Now I only have to put five barely used science kits on Facebook Marketplace this summer. Instead of six.
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