having fun
By Jean Mangan
Emily’s 7th birthday at RUSH
t
Gift an
EXPERIENCE
THERE IS A MOVEMENT these days that has resonated with our family: having less stuff and valuing more experiences. Every family chooses to approach this concept a different way. For our family, we have reduced the amount of toys we bring into the home and, instead, diverted the money we would spend on toys towards activities, lessons, and other experiences for our girls. Two of the biggest hurdles each year in keeping our toys pared down are our daugh-
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Athens-Oconee Parent
ters’ birthdays.We are fortunate to have many family and friends who want to celebrate each girl on her special day and that they are generous enough to want to provide gifts. It feels selfish/rude/greedy to tell people, “Please, don’t give them anything that will clutter up the house!” That takes away from our loved ones’ joy of giving, and it limits the new things that are out in the world our daughters will enjoy that we don’t know about.We welcome all gifts brought into our
home, and we cull the previous years’ items as the girls age out of them or we see they don’t get played with. One of the best things we have done has been getting the grandparents on board with gifting experiences rather than things. We explained that we would like to focus on events and experiences we can do with the girls, and that if they were inclined to give a gift, that helping the girls get to do all of the fun things there are to do in our area