Finding just the right gift for your child to celebrate a milestone can be hard, when you are trying to support them alone, it can seem almost impossible. In today’s society everyone wants the latest expensive gadget, a new cell phone, a laptop, the latest video game console. Those things are all nice, and we would love to give them to our children but sometimes you want to give something meaningful and you need to do it without breaking the bank.
Birthdays and Christmas’s all seem to run together. Ask your child what their favorite present from two years ago was and most will not be able to even remember one gift. It’s time to start thinking practical, what do they really need, what will help them now that they are older, have graduated, or whatever the milestone is. What does your child like? What will they get the most use out of?
One thing Hailey has always liked is having her room redecorated. That sounds expensive but it doesn’t have to be. Chances are your child already has all the furniture they need so with a little paint, a thrift store lamp or two, a new comforter and suddenly they have a whole new room.
Get your child involved in redecorating, after all they are going to be living in this room for a while. Brainstorm ideas for painting the room that are not just boring one color walls. Some things we have done, a picket fence with flowers growing along it, polka dots, painting each wall a different color, and using the walls as a frame to outline a collection of posters of whatever they are excited about at the moment.
Other ideas are setting up a vanity area for your daughter in her room, but an inexpensive piece of furniture, refinish it, hand a mirror and instant beauty area. Maybe your son collects trains, pick up bookshelves and hanging shelves at thrift stores and paint them, display his treasured collection and it is a gift he will use for a long time.
Most importantly, give them the gift of your time. Pizza and a hockey game, just the two of you, or maybe let them bring a friend, whatever your budget will allow. Don’t let commercials on TV decide what your child should have, take what you know to be important to your child and build on that. Those are the gifts they will always remember.