We don’t accept gifts for our children from friends and family! In fact, we came up with a unique alternative to offer others that want to bless our children in various ways.
When our first child was born my husband and I discussed what we wanted to do when it came to others giving gifts to our children. Did we just want to place limits or boundaries on gift-giving? Maybe just supply gift lists? Or cut out gits completely?
Our family lives a minimalist lifestyle – a tiny house on a homestead! We value experiences for our children more than physical items, and frankly, we just don’t have the room to store a lot of things.
Our children need clothing, books, a few toys, a music player, craft supplies, and outdoor balls, sports gear, and bikes to enjoy their childhood. These things keep them creative, loving the outdoors, and always using their imagination. What they don’t need is to be drowning in toys!
And we can find most of these things very cheaply second-hand, picking out specifically the items we want our children to have in our house. And as parents, we rarely give gifts to our children that aren’t practical.
So instead of constantly having to examine the items others are giving us and having them potentially waste their time and money on items we just don’t want or need, we thought of an idea.
Let’s check it out…
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A Minimalist Lifestyle
As a family that lives in a tiny house, we have learned to truly embrace a minimalist lifestyle! We only keep items that we use regularly and donate or toss items that don’t serve us any longer.
For example, we only keep a few necessary dishes in the kitchen. We don’t keep extra linens or clothing on hand. And, we make all of our own household products!
Not only does this keep inventory low to manage, but it keeps our house tidy and budget open. It also helps us avoid chasing after trends, spending money on unnecessary items, and people pleasing. Instead, that money goes towards our homestead and increasing our self-sufficiency!
In the same way, our children have learned to enjoy playing with a few open-ended toys, reading lots of books, and exploring the outdoors. There has been so much research on how having fewer toys actually allows children to develop a creative and imaginative mind.
Our culture today is all about spending money on frivolous things. There is so much marketing to children on things they honestly just don’t need! Children are drowning in a constant mess of stuff, and it just brings them anxiety and teaches bad character traits.
Plus, children don’t even want toys most of the time! They want to be with you doing whatever you are doing. Children want to be experiencing life, not fiddling with plastic.
From firsthand experience, I can say that our children thrive on having only a few toys, games, puzzles, books, and random objects available to them. Consider minimizing your toy collection by checking out these articles:
How To Easily Store Toys Without A Playroom (We Live In A Tiny House!)
The 6 Best Alternatives To Buying Kids Toys And Avoiding More Junk
While we don’t accept gifts for our children, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to. You might just set different boundaries or provide specific gift lists. Find what works best for your family!
Related Post: 11 Things I No Longer Do As A Mom Since Taking My Job As A Homemaker Seriously
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Our Unique Alternative To Why We Don’t Accept Gifts For Our Children
Instead of toys or other random objects being gifted to our children each holiday and birthday, we have started an Adventure Fund for each of them.
An Adventure Fund, as we call it, is a savings account at a local bank, one for each child. At birthdays and holidays, grandparents and family members gift our children cash which goes straight into the fund.
When the fund is around $200 usually, we consider an adventure to spend the money on. These are various experiences that we would not be able to afford otherwise. The children’s museum, a day at the ski hill, a waterpark, the zoo, and a local festival, are all examples of these experiences.
Our latest adventure was going to an aquarium. Our daughter has been into fish lately and loves reading books about them. We wanted her to see them first-hand! We used her adventure fund to pay for the gas, hotel, food, and aquarium entrance fees for a day.
She had a blast! When we got home from the weekend trip, she sat down and drew a picture of fish for each person that donated to her adventure fund. Because she’s not old enough yet, I wrote a thank you card for her, but in the future she will be writing it with a report of sorts, to go with it. We also printed off a few pictures for the day and mailed them.
That week, each grandparent and family member received a card with a colored picture, thank you note, and pictures of the special trip. They all love the intentionality, thought, and care that goes into it. And if they are ever around, they are more than welcome to go on the adventure day with us!
Without the adventure fund money, she would have never had this experience and instead likely have toys sitting on a shelf that she never touched.
The Adventure Fund is our way of avoiding items we don’t want and need and giving our children more of what they do want and need through various experiences! Maybe this is something that would work for your family as well.
Related Post: The 6 Best Alternatives To Buying Kids Toys And Avoiding More Junk
A Step Further
If you have very generous people in your lives and have more money than necessary in your adventure fund, you could consider opening up a Custodial Account or 529 College Saving Plan Account for your child as well.
Our children have this as well, and it is the overflow of the adventure fund. When the adventure fund has enough money in it to support our next adventure day, the extra money gets deposited into these accounts.
The money is invested and grows over time. When the child is an adult they can have access to the money (or you as the parent may be able to pull it out sooner), depending on the account. Do your own research on these types of accounts, or consider other investment accounts for your children as well.
We don’t accept gifts for our children and love this alternative instead! While not everyone was receptive to this at first, we were consistent in our request and always followed through on mailing the Adventure Day recap letters.
Over time, everyone loved the idea and hopped on board. Let me know in the comments below if you agree with our idea or have additional thoughts! While we don’t accept gifts for our children, remember to find what works best for your family.
Kelsey at GoodPointGrandma
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