It starts with a pointless nappy cake and gets worse from there...
Many words of wisdom bestowed upon me when I was pregnant neglected to mention that you will need a secret bunker stashed full of all the unwanted toys you received during the 18 or so years as a parent. I am the only one who doesn’t secretly dread the deluge of plastic toys their child receives on their birthday? You know the stuff that takes up half your living room, sits broken in the corner or hasn’t been played with since the joy of unwrapping came to an abrupt halt? You then have the task of surreptitiously storing it in the bin so your child doesn’t erupt with, “but I love that, it’s my favourite”.
The constant pressure to be the best parent and keep your children entertained is problematic when you’ve just exceeded your credit card limit over Christmas and are looking to get them out of the house in January. But what if you could ask for contributions from friends and family towards activities rather than getting toys?
Swimming, music lessons, drama classes, rugby, football, horse riding the litany of amazing activities on offer is endless these days but it all comes at price. Termly fees, monthly fees, one off fees, special badge fees. A new website called Gift Time For Kids offers a solution that can assuage this financial burden for parents.
Parents can create a wishlist of activities for the children, state a goal amount of money they would like to raise and send this to friends and family to contribute towards. The activities are for all ages from newborn which could solve the issue of getting 4 comforters for a baby shower gift or that nappy cake that you thought was great for baby number 1 but learnt very quickly, was purely style over substance.
Not only can this website helping parents but if you don’t have children or your children are a completely different age, you may find yourself in the toy isle saying “what does a 10 year old boy want”? Contributing to a wishlist will allow the person to give as little as £5, leave a message and see what their money is going towards. Gift Time For Kids even has plans to set a up thank you cards to all contributors, showing a picture of the birthday boy or girls enjoying their activity so it can help relieve you of that new wave of politeness that is “thank you cards”.
#timenottoys will soon become a household phrase as we come to the understanding that so many toys are not always conducive to children being stimulated and occupied. Moreover, watching my child swimming their first length unaided during her swimming lesson was one of those wow moments that will last a life time. I’d advise you to check out www.gifttimeforkids.co.uk before the new waste of money fad descends upon us for Christmas and we’re compelled to pay sixty quid for an egg that hatches!