Why don’t we open gifts at kid parties anymore?
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Anonymous
| I remember going to birthday parties as a kid and having present opened… I think after cake? It was so fun to see. Why don’t we do this anymore? I’m always curious when dropping my kid off and adding to the gift pile what is in there! |
Anonymous
| IDGAF what present the kid got and am glad we don't have to sit through that waste of time. |
Anonymous
| Because it’s boring AF to watch someone else open gifts, and it makes kids jealous or makes the gifter feel badly when the kid gets a duplicate or tosses the gift aside. Most people give gift cards anyway. |
Anonymous
| It’s so nobody gets their feelings hurt. |
Anonymous
| When we were kids most parties were at home. There wasn't much to do other than sign happy birthday, eat cake, and play. Opening gifts was an activity that helped kill time. Most of the parties nowadays are either at some location (laser tag, bowling, etc), but even at home, they are a lot more structured. My kid went to an at-home party where they played outdoor laser tag; another time there was a video game van parked in front of the house and all the kids gamed. There's less time now for things like opening gifts. |
Anonymous
+1. We would play pin the tail on the donkey (you could buy a kit at K-mart), duck duck goose, and then there was nothing to do but open presents and eat cake. |
Anonymous
Most people do not give gift cards, at least not the parties I go to. There’s always a pile of wrapped or bagged gifts. |
Anonymous
It would just be the kids though. I can’t think of the last kids party that had parents stay. |
Anonymous
| Because it’s at a venue with a scheduled time frame, instead of at someone’s house. |
Anonymous
| Frankly, too boring for the other kids, takes too long and can be too over stimulating for the birthday kid. Many many reasons why |
Anonymous
| We mostly go to no gifts parties anyway, which would add another layer of problem. |
Anonymous
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Some kids have searing, awful memories of those times OP. Imagine if you couldn’t give a “good” gift or if yours was meager compared to someone else. It became a pissing contest that, like always, generally embarrassed some kid with less money than everyone else who remembers it as “a fun time”.
Also, we’re all drowning in crap. |
Anonymous
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Because whole class parties are too big - it would take too long and they are usually at a venue with a scheduled.
When kids are slightly older and have smaller parties with just their friends, then they open gifts at the end and thank the giver. These parties are at a venue or at a home/backyard but it's a reasonable number of kids, not dozens. |
Anonymous
| I was born in ‘76 and only saw this done at one girl’s birthday party and she was the only one I knew who had home parties. |
Anonymous
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My kid is not good with diplomatic responses and at age 6 I worried about a weird face and an honest comment that would hurt a gift givers feelings.
He also had friends who we knew couldn’t afford a gift or a big gift and I didn’t want those kids to feel embarrassed because they didn’t bring something or brought something small. Because opening gifts is boring to watch. Now, at 11, most of his gifts are gift cards to activities that he likes and that is boring to watch open. |