Mr and Mrs K's New Journey to a Debt Free Life.

LannieDuck

One of my DD's friends' parents didn't do party bags this year, they just bought a small gift for each of the children instead, and a balloon. I think the parents appreciated not having more cheap tat to take home.

Home-made jigsaw puzzles sound amazing! Can me and DD come?

7roland8

yes I think I phrased myself wrong - they didn't mind a balloon or a bouncy ball - it was the very cheap sweets than none would eat they disliked.

Goldiegirl

I just wanted to give a big thumbs up to wooden toys.

My dad was a carpenter, and he made me wooden toys. I remember a dolls house, a dolls crib, a dolls cot and wooden animals, I also remember puzzles, not jigsaw puzzles but the type of puzzle where various shaped pieces of wood are in a frame, and you have to move them around to get one piece from the top to the bottom of the frame.

Even as a small child I knew these toys were something special. Most of them are long gone, but I have a couple of my favourites tucked away in the loft.

My dad said he enjoyed making them, and enjoyed the pleasure I got from them

Granariesgirl

Well, it seems to have been a rollercoaster of a week on here for you, Alex!
Bravo on the party front, keeping it at home where it should be! Now all you & Mrs K need to do is keep control of it & not let your parents take it over...
:T
I see you made Mrs K's parents promise to be on their best behaviour but what about YOURS? I think you need to give them the same talking to & make it clear that such comments as they made last time are TOTALLY unacceptable & will no longer be tolerated. Good Grief - If that's the way they usually talk to Mrs K's parents, I'm not surprised your Dad nearly got thumped once!
:eek:
If they can't promise to behave then they should stay away as it would definitely spoil Little K's Big Day & make a much worse impression on his friends' parents than any amount of clutter or mess in your house!
It is massively unjust to require a higher standard of behaviour from one set of grandparents than from the other & it seems that your parents have been having it all their own way for a long time now...

It seems to me that quite a few of your problems with Mrs K & family may stem from the fact that you let your parents get away with the most appallingly snobbish behaviour towards your wife & her family: look at it from her point of view, by pandering to them, you are giving her the clear message that SHE is less important to you than them. I don't think you'd find many women who would be happy to put up with that for long - all credit to her with sticking with it!

You seriously need to redress the balance: share time EQUALLY between the grandparents; ALL walk out of their house if EITHER set of grandparents starts slagging off the other (no shouting, no recriminations, just say "I think it's time we left" & go - they'll soon work out why); if parents are playing up at your house (snide comments about presents, manners, breeding, education etc), they should be taken aside by relevant spouse & asked to behave or leave & if they don't get the message in private then it is up to the 2 of you to stand together & tell them clearly in front of everyone that they are setting a bad example to your son, THEIR grandson & to either stop or leave... :cool:

Make sure you thank BOTH sets of grandparents for the presents equally & that it is the THOUGHT & not the monetary value that is important!

Good luck with the F & F's - after dealing with the parents & in laws, should be a doddle! :rotfl:

Ohh & thanks to Gallygirl for mentioning "The Millionaire Next Door" book - brilliant & thought provoking...

debtfreewannabe321

Hi Alex, Just catching up (there is always pages and pages to go through every time lol so takes a while )

Ref the party bags my 2 get invited to a fair few. The best ones we've had are a bag with a slice of cake, a balloon (kids love balloons) and no tat in and a book. As someone else mentioned the book people do sets of books (the Julia Donaldson one is a good set) and you just give a book to each child. My SIL gave out roald dahl at the last party which was for 5 year olds.....thought this was a little advanced though and meant we have to read it to them (DD was disappointed she couldn't read it herself). Bubbles are a good one as kids love them, but I really avoid toys now they are usually thrown away in my house the second they get through the door as the kids take the sweets/cake out and leave the rest in the bag and never ask for it !

Hope everything is well, your signature is looking good

7roland8

Or you could be brave Alex ad not do party bags at all - start a new trend. Just have a few gifts for games and try and make sure each child wins one.
Pass the parcel is good and put some sweets inside each layer of paper.

Those Julia Donaldson books are great - they sell for £7 on Amazon but have recently been reduced to £1.75 and I got a few.

kissjenn

Another book people fan. They do a gorgeous set of Walker picture books or how about something like this if it's boys

http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?productId=413520&storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&categoryId=85207

They could get a book each, cheap set of crayons and a slice of cake. Change from a tenner for the 4 of them and 2 extra for mini-k's stocking!

Think the wooden toys idea is fab...no-one would ever turn their nose up at something like that. More likely every mum would be going home and elbowing hubby in the ribs to say "Why can't you do that"!!

You should be able to throw a wonderful party for a few quid and throw the change after you get your mother's present into the repayment pot.

AlexLK

Hi everyone,

I shall respond properly later ... so much for a "quiet" day, it's all going off here. Nothing bad though we were woken up this morning by a customer ringing so utterly desperate to do a deal :rotfl:. More days like this, please!

gallygirl

Great stuff :T:T:T

AlexLK

OK got a few minutes before another customer turns up to pick a chest of drawers up and Mrs. K. and I head out ... to (hopefully) collect a chair for restoration. My, my I know how to treat a lady.

In response:
Mara: Thank you, do please let me know. Like the idea of a yo-yo, lots of shops in Matlock sell similar stuff.

Dawn: Thank you for the tips. All the kids coming (apart from niece) are not reading yet. I've sorted niece's gift out as she now studies piano with me, I've bought her some sheet music.

Lannie: Thank you for the tips. The more the merrier!

Roland: We can certainly do sweets of all varieties as we still have old fashioned sweet shops round here!

Goldiegirl: I really enjoyed reading about your Dad. Mrs. K. and I have lots of long term plans to make various things together for our son.

Granariesgirl: I hadn't spoke to my parents regarding their behaviour but I imagine they will be able to "hold back" for a couple of hours. However, I do agree it is rather inappropriate and I would not be impressed to see warring grandparents at a child's party I'd been invited to.

So far as sharing time equally between the grandparents that's not really do able as Mrs. K.'s parents cannot look after our son very often - both of them still work. Her mother is a nurse so works some really odd hours, which makes it even more awkward.

DFW: Thank you for the tips, though unfortunately our cake will not be as nice as yours was for your son's birthday (I meant my offer - if he's so naughty I'd be more than happy for you to adopt me :rotfl:.)

Very pleased about my signature too, if I may say so myself!

Roland: I used to HATE pass the parcel but we may give it a go anyhow, already decided on some of the music we'll play.

KissJenn: Thank you re the books! In fact thank you all for your tips. As for my mother's present that will probably cost the most, as we've always no clue what to buy for my parents so usually ends up being something rather expensive.

Gallygirl: I'm pleased too.