Christmas gifts...

well... on both sides of the family it seems that the kids got mismatched gifts... meaning my mom got my dd a cute unicorn (horse) stick... but not my ds... what? like they will take turns with that!

and my mil got my ds a med. sized truck with a flashlight and noise on it, but my dd a small truck that folds into a phone with buttons/noises and a small horse with a flashlight...

and my sil got my ds a steel Tonka truck - but in her defense she got my dd a cute Little People Prince & Princess set so at least they are both vehicles...

they are already fighting over them all... not sure if I should try to distract and "share" or go buy some similar/same toy.

I do think that I'd like the kids to have a set of "horse sticks" so I'll probably at least buy that.

the joys of having two the same age ... and relatives who don't "get it" that the kids can't share all toys yet!

 

I'm kind of having the same problem but it's with what I bought... I'm hoping after a day or two we'll see what they are still fighting over and possibly get another one. I hope yours stop fighting soon as well!

 

yeah, good idea to give it a few days... I mean my dd now has 3+ dolls and my ds sure doesn't need that many! so hopefully it will all even out.

 

Right now, they are not fighting over any toys but last year if there was a toy that they were especially fighting hard over, we did use their gift cards to get a second one.

 

My family does buy the girls pretty much the same thing. It may be slightly different, but only slightly. My hubby and I bought the girls all matching gifts with just small similarities (like color) and I was really second guessing myself that we did that this year. But thank goodness I did! We made the girls open their gifts one at a time so we could all enjoy seeing what each other got, and every time one girl would open a gift, the other would say, "I want one, too" So, this was definitely a year where matching presents worked in our favor.

 

Hmmm....The horses, yes, that is a definite two gift! I'm trying to think of my boys... I think most of it is just shared among them anyways, they really don't know or care. Nicholas wanted a plane with people on it-so he got that. Anthony wanted a big boat with airplanes, so he got that. They really do share(for the most part) amongst their toys. My sister in law got them two musical instrument sets(I told her too), and my sister got two firefighter hats and two construction worker hats.

I got them some Imaginex toys, one the Hamm flying vehicle from Toy Story, and the other the garbage truck from Toy Story. And then they got some blocks, trio blocks, a black and decker tool bench, and the creative projects art table. So I guess most of their stuff is joint. I know my mom got them two of some electronic toy. And my mil got them two games. So generally, everything it seems like they share most of. I'm sure that's going to change by next year...

 

I got my kids totally different things, and so did our family... honestly the only time I bought two of one thing they played with it at the same time for a few days and that's it (a play laptop). When you have b/g twins I think it's a bit of a waste to have two of the same toys honestly, especially as they often have different tastes anyway. DS couldn't care less for the Calico Critters DD got, and DD doesn't care about DS' train.

We've emphasized sharing from the start and my kids rarely fight at all though. Of course if we ever get a MobiGo or something we will get two though... but from your post I think those are all reasonable toys to share.

 

We didn't get the twins any matching gifts. One got a balance bike and silk scarves. The other got a sulky and a doll. They can take turns and end up with twice as many age appropriate toys in the house.


eta- they both got jars of nutella! but everyone in the family got their own. :ibiggrin:

 

We got them their own gifts for the most part...we did give both DD and DS a Thomas the Train and friends travel set. However, family members got them the same things in different colors (ex. Grandma got them each the V-Tech Reader, one in pink and one in blue)...

 

This is the first year that they didn't get all matching or complimentary gifts. We've had some issues about it, but I gave them each a box to put their own toys in and if one wants to play with the other's toy, she has to ask first. There has been some crying and fighting, but I think its an important lesson, and important for them to have their own things.

 

I love all the ideas ladies! always a wealth of knowledge and I love seeing what other families do!

 

My parents bought them one mat with roads on it and two trucks. Other family members got them either two of each or a large item to be shared. One wooden train set, but an extra train was bought so there are two trains, one Melissa and Doug wooden toy and so on. DH and I got them one large coloring book to share (we will take the pages out), one story book to share, one wooden puzzle to share and so on. We got two shovels and two play computers.
By the way, I wouldn't run right out and get another horse stick. We have one hand-me down horse that we keep hidden. It's noisy and it can scratch the hardwood floor when they drag it a certain way.

 

well, so far so good... they aren't fighting quite as much, so I'll just let the dust settle before I buy anything. and I had to laugh about the horse scratching wood floors... well, it's the opposite for us... our wood floors are 50 yrs old... and nothing scratches them... in fact I just saw that the unicorn stick is painted white and the bottom of it is chipped! ah well... no biggie.

oh, and we got the big carpet with roads on it too, they love that!

 

I think it just depends on the gift. Our girls have a lot of identical toys, like baby dolls and stuffed animals, bikes, etc. However, MIL bought them each a princess doll this year and those were different. Same doll, but one is Belle and one is Cinderella. They are doing really well sharing it so far. I'm glad because I'm kind of tired of having 2 of everything, lol. Most of the gifts they got this year are meant to be shared, like dress up clothes, musical instruments, some Cinderella castle thing...

 

My boys are almost 5, and their sister is just 16 months older, but we've never done matching toys - or even toys that compliment each other. It just seems like a waste of money to me. They've always gotten different toys and have to share.

If there is a problem with sharing, then we set a timer. That has worked well for us for quite a while. The hot toy at our house right now is the Leapster Explorer. We got it for one of the boys, but right now, all three want to play it. He gets it first, almost always, but he knows his time will run out and it will be his brother or sisters turn. So far, no issues.

I don't think there is anything wrong with getting doubles of some toys, but I also don't think there is anything wrong with letting the kids figure out how to share. Sharing isn't an easy thing for little ones to figure out, but they do.