What is a bonus kid? A kid who has hung out a lot at your place?

I would assume if this is the biological child of your spouse / partner you would be gifting them the same as your own biological children. The bonus part is irrelevant when there is a biologcail parent involved in the household.

Or is this is the child of an ex that you have kept in contact with?

Check to defray wedding costs.

It's shorthand for not legally related. So a bonus son is not your bio son or adopted son. Some could be called step- because their parent is married to the "bonus" parent.

Are you married to the bonus kid’s spouse? Why wouldn’t you do a joint gift? Are you asking what people generally give their children who are getting married (so that you have ideas for you both)? I think it depends on a lot of factors, including budget.

Anonymous wrote:I thought a bonus kid was a late in life unplanned baby, like in Father of the Bride, part 2, where they had raised all their kids, thought they were done with that part of their lives, but then got a “bonus”.

No a bonus kid is the kid that the DH conceived with the AP.

If the bonus baby was at about months after the first baby DH had with DW, and at least 2 years before DH and DW’s 2nd baby, It’s a bonus sandwich baby.

If born after the last DH/DW baby or before the first, then it’s a bonus bookend baby.

OP, was this a bonus sandwiched baby or a bonus bookend baby? First bookend baby gets 10,000, sandwiched baby gets nothing, because well sins of the father, and middle child syndrome, and back bookend baby gets 20,000 because that one’s your fault since you stopped having sex after first DH/DW baby was born.

OP, please don't ever say "bonus son" again: that term is such tone-deaf virtue signaling, like "Look at me! I have a step kid, but I want to bang you over the head with how special and good I am because--even though he's my step kid--I love him like my own, because I'm such a good person, and I am going to seize the chance to boast about how good I am every time I have to mention this kid's existence, because everything is about meeeeeeeeeee!"

So OP is a bonus mother or stepmother ? Give them Respect and a check for $30k

$500.

Anonymous wrote:"Bonus kid" isn't a thing. "Bonus mom" is a thing because a kid naturally has 1 or 2 parents and the others are bonus.

There is no natural number of kids to have.

Bonus is a cutesy way to try to put a positive spin on something - the kid has two parents, and yay! a extra "bonus" parent!

My kids (who are teens) don't consider their father's affair partner, whom he married before the ink was dry on our divorce decree, to be a "bonus" to them in any way, much less a parent.