Do you send thank you notes?

[Anonymous]

If it’s a big birthday party with randoms I don’t expect it. But if it’s with moms group friends and friends that I have play dates with, I expect a thank you.

[Anonymous]

Of course. Why? Because it's the right thing to do (and a tasty way to do it). And I'm not even Southern!

[Anonymous]

Yes, it's is considered good manners and takes minimal effort to do it. Most people appreciate the gesture.

[Anonymous]

I thank in person, or if someone sends something by mail we send a card or a an email. All I care about is that a gift is acknowledged so that I know it arrives. I honestly don't care how it happens (text/email/note).

My goal is to give a gift, not to be "properly" thanked for it. As long as I know they received it I'm happy.

[Anonymous]

I just couldn’t manage it when my kids were younger. I started having #1 do it around the age of 7. It’s fine now that they can do it themselves.

[Anonymous]

Always. As I say to our children, someone goes out of their way to purchase a gift for you, the least you can do is write a thank you note. When young, they drew pictures and I wrote the note; when they got older, they wrote them themselves. Now older teens (HS), and this is never a question....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but IME not too many people send them back. Yes, I’ll judge you if you don’t send a thank you note. I’ll judge you even more if you send a generic “thank you for the gift” thank you note.

You sound nasty. A generic thank you especially written by a small child is fine.

Plus, I've absolutely had the experience of gift tags falling off of gifts and not being sure who gave what. If I get a generic note written by a kid, I'm not really judging the content, and I'm happy to assume that the tag got lost but they wanted to thank us anyway. IME, I both send and receive notes. I can think of one party in six years where we gave a gift and didn't get a note.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thank in person, or if someone sends something by mail we send a card or a an email. All I care about is that a gift is acknowledged so that I know it arrives. I honestly don't care how it happens (text/email/note).

My goal is to give a gift, not to be "properly" thanked for it. As long as I know they received it I'm happy.

My kid calls her grandparents to thank them for gifts, because a phone call is more personal. I don't really care how people say thank you--in person is great, a card is great, a text with a photo of your baby wearing the outfit I bought is great, an email is great. Just take the time to (1) let me know you actually received the gift and (2) that you like it. The formalities don't mean much to me, but the thought does count.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but IME not too many people send them back. Yes, I’ll judge you if you don’t send a thank you note. I’ll judge you even more if you send a generic “thank you for the gift” thank you note.

This is absurd. I got a stamp on Etsy that says “Thank you! Love, John” and I give it to my son with a stamp pad and let him go to town on white cardstock. It’s generic, but shows gratefulness and he has a major part in doing it.

If you think it’s totally fine to not write a personal note and just have your kid stamp thank you! Love, John on a piece of paper, then you are absurd.

I had parent pre-print shutterfly postcards with a picture of their kid on the front and a "thank you for the gift" on the back. I judged them. I agree that a generic note is worse than no note.

The exception would be if John is too young to write. I would view his stamps equal to a short note from the parents that was specific to the gift/person.

[Anonymous]

Always. My kids are young adults now and they always send handwritten thank you notes as well.

[Anonymous]

In my daughter’s K class last year everyone invited all the kids to each birthday party, so we went to 16 different birthday parties. Out of all of them, we received two thank you notes total. That’s it. Everyone has everyone’s addresses too as the school has a directory.

I made my DD write them to everyone anyway.

[Anonymous]

I record a video message of my child as she opens the gift saying thank you and immediately text it to the gift giver. Done.

[Anonymous]

For her class birthday party with kids, no. I did the first couple times, but I was literally the only one. Literally. So I stopped.

[Anonymous]

Not for kids' parties and I don't expect someone to send me one either. I only do thank yous after formal parties (weddings or showers).

[Anonymous]

Yes, we do, since I don’t like opening presents at a party so they can’t thank the giver in person. I haven’t received one this year. It won’t make me stop doing it but I’m guessing not many people do it anymore.