Financial embarrassment on sons 18th birthday

abijanzo

I would say you need to give your nephew and niece more credit (not literallyLOL). They'll be old enough to understand that their mum and dad are financially speaking a bit better off and as other posters have said, a well thought out gift sent with love is the way to go. If they are miffed that they dont get 200 quid then they are missing the point and there's not much you can do about that anyway!
P.S well done for getting your son a car! I bet he'll ALWAYS remember that especially if you struggled to find the cash - those things mean so much more.

shopndrop

I will never forget my son saying the best present we gave him for his 18th was a photo album full of photos from the day he was born until a couple of weeks before his 18th. We tried to include photos of all sorts of people who had been (and maybe gone) from his life. Even now, he will get it out and just look through it. He always comments it was one of the best presents ever received. He did say he knew how long it would have taken me to sort suitable photos out and that meant a lot.

Anniek1969

I have quite a large family and I always told them that when they reached 18 that they were now an adult and only get a present on their 21st. When my niece turned 19 (my sisters daughter)and I bought her a gift set she said I shouldn't have bought her anything as she was an adult now but my nephews birthday (my DH sister son)is a week later and when we didn't put money in the card they were pretty miffed about it. It shouldn't matter what the present is the fact that you remember and make the effort should be enough, birthday's should be a time to celebrate not talk about what presents they get. You can only give what you can afford and I think a personal well thought out gift would mean much more than a large cheque, giving money doesn't take any thought and is often the easy way out.