I buy things whenever and keep a stash in the basement to rotate through. I try to think ahead to what the next developmental stage will be and have things on hand (former preschool teacher, old habits die hard).

If I notice he’s really into something, I might pick up a random toy here or there—like this summer he was really into Rescue Bots, or when he really started liking longer books.

But those aren’t gifts in my mind. Birthday (spring) and Christmas are when he gets gifts to unwrap.

Way too often- big / expensive toys few times a year, small/ cheap ones few times a month. My kids are 7 and 2 ...

When they were younger like your DC, quite often. Because I believed that toys for that age are educational as well as for fun and kids that age change so much over the course of a year, I didn't want to save them only for Christmas and birthdays. One one of my DC's case, birthday and Christmas were in the same month so it would have been a lot one month then nothing for 12 months. If my 2 yo got really good at doing puzzles, I wasn't going to make him wait a year to get more.

Now my kids are older and I get them toys less often. My 7 yo can wait 6 months for more LOL dolls.

Just because someone is spoiled (which, most of us are spoiled with material possessions) does not make them a brat.

Puzzles, puppets, and a play kitchen seems like a very reasonable number/type of gifts for a 2 year old at Christmas.

Our kids only get new toys at Christmas or their birthdays with rare exceptions when it seems to make sense (for example, both their bdays are in winter but last summer we bought them some new outdoor toys since they can use those in summer). We do sometimes get them new books or puzzles at other times of the year. And we replace things like art supplies, bath toys as needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With Christmas coming up, I’m wondering how often you buy toys for your kids?

I have a two-year old DS. Late September birthday. I’m trying not to raise a spoiled brat, and I don’t want to set the precedent that Christmas is a bonanza, but on the other hand, I want him to have some new puzzles, a play kitchen, and a few puppets. I’d like to dole these out over the year, but I don’t want to raise a spoiled brat who gets presents all the time.

Any advice for me?

But, for small kids especially, presents galore is what Christmas super fun and special. Brightly wrapped gifts under the tree. Things to open. Cool toys to play with. Dont you love having a (small) pile of presents to open too?

Let him enjoy opening his presents. After 2 days or so, rotate them out and/or stash in your rainy day closet and re-introduce in Feb when the weather is bleak and you need fresh toys.

I think there’s a balance for kids that young though. I remember Christmas being sort of painful when my DS was 2 because it was a chore to get him to open all the gazillion presents from the grandparents. He just wanted to play with the ones he had already opened (but the adults did not want to sit around the tree all day waiting for him to open the rest).

That said, OP, a toy kitchen and food to go with it plus some puzzles does not sound excessive. The toy kitchen may be expensive, but it is a single object, so I don’t think you are setting up extreme expectations.

Anonymous wrote:How often do you buy things you want for yourself, OP?

Would you consider yourself a “spoiled brat”?

I was raised my a mentally ill mother. As a result, I have a lot of guilt surrounding buying things for myself, to the point where I feel overly indulgent replacing threadbare socks. I was routinely told I was a spoiled brat.

I’m in therapy now and have been for years. I’m genuinely trying to figure out how to act like a normal person and not screw up my kid.

I’ll buy things like books whenever. I’ll by a board game if I think my kid will like it. If it’s close to Xmas or bday then I’ll save it. I’ve also saved things for rainy days, etc.