Thanks and Goodies

[czechmate]

Quick question to all the mom's out there.

1) After the birthday party, do you always make your kids write thank you after their birthday parties? At what age, if never, can it stop?

2)Goodie bags, necessary or waste of time, money and effort?

Just curious.

Jen

[Bigsweetie]

How old is the child?

Obviously Emily can't write her own thank you's yet so it's all me LOL! But once she's learning to write i'll have her do what she can. At first it will probably just be signing her name, etc. Then it will be more as she can do more. I won't have her stop. She should get used to having to do it the rest of her life, as I am!

The goodie bags issue depends on age. If your kid says "goodie bags are stupid" it's probably time to stop. Of course, my aunt still makes them and we're in our 30's! LOL! We like them!

[spotty4]

That's an interesting question to me. I'm not a mommy so I can't answer from that perspective. But, like all of us, I have been a little kid who had a few bday parties. I cannot ever recall writing thank you notes. The goodie bag was the thank you. I loved giving the goodie bags. I loved picking out w/ my mom what should go inside them. In fact, rather than goodie bag, I think they should be called thank you bags.

[skibum515]

I don't think I ever wrote thank you notes either as a kid. In fact, a verbal thank you to whoever gave it (assuming they were there) or a phone thank you (if they weren't) was sufficient. I didn't actually write thank you notes until I was graduating from HS. I still don't usually - calling is fine in my book if someone sends something (but then again, I'm not Miss Manners!)

I did write them for graduation and plan on doing it for the wedding though...

[Rebes]

My son is 5 1/2. I make him dictate to me what he wants to say, and I write it, then have him sign his name. When he gets faster and better at writing, I will have him write his thank yous.

As for the goodie bags, all the kids seem to love them, but I think it is a waste of money. I did give out books before, and that was a big hit. I buy various titles from Scholastic (they are cheap) and have the kids choose a book on their way out. Everyone can use a new book!

[Imachickadee75]

I've been taking a relevent picture, gluing it to some colorful card stock and writing the thank you card on that. For example, we did a fireman party for Jason in March and had a tour of the fire station (I highly reccomend this by the way). I got some great pictures of the kids while we were there. If for some reason I didn't get the child I took a pict of Jason playing with his gift from them. I stuck them on the card stock, wrote a quick thank you, and viola! A great thank you. For baby shower gifts from my classmates, I took a pict of baby Zack in an OU onsie one of them gave me and made the cards out of that. (Although some ladies got us a really great blanket and stuffed animal. For them I took a pict of him sleeping in his bed with them -one girl carries her's around with her still!) Anyway, its a great way to personalize the cards.

So, while I wasn't raised to do thank yous (can you tell I was the fourth child?) I do try to do them now. Goodie bags....hmmm. I don't know how long you should do those.......

Jackie

[spotty4]

Originally Posted by Rebes

As for the goodie bags, all the kids seem to love them, but I think it is a waste of money. I did give out books before, and that was a big hit. I buy various titles from Scholastic (they are cheap) and have the kids choose a book on their way out. Everyone can use a new book!

GENIUS! That is a great idea. I will tuck that one away for when it become applicable to my life as a mommy. Thanks!

[czechmate]

I was wondering since Cullen just turned 9 yrs old and I've forced him to write thank you notes -- about 15 of them. But when you invite your friends and classmates, then you have more to do.

Goodie bags -- I hate. Why do I need to get you a gift because you brought me one. Plus they're usually full of cheap toys and candy. In lieu of goodie bags, I really like the book idea.

Ava turns 5 yrs old next month so we get to do it again...............


Jen

[Regina]

I agree with you, jen. I hate goodie bags, but I feel obligated to give them. It is definetly giving someone something just because they came or as my mom says,"you don't want the other kids to feel bad." I think it is that child's special day, and kids need to learn that just because another is getting a present, it doesn't mean you get one.

I love the book idea, if you are going to do the whole goodie bag thing...naybe with a sticker printed from your computer that says "thanks for sharing in (insert name)'s special day." Wouldn't that be like a thank you card? Or him actually writing "thanks for coming to my birthday" in each book.

There are those thank you cards for kids' birthdays that are fill in the blank type cards. I have found brand new scholastic books from goodwill for a quarter, but I think the price has gone up...some days they have buy one get one on books, and they look like new...

Or, I guess making a bookmark thank you card ahead of time might be cute. We had a book walk (instead of a cake walk) at one of my kids birthdays, and their take-home gift was the book.