DS's will be 1 this weekend and has already received many gifts. I bought a pack of thank you cards today and thought I would include a photo of DS with his gift in each corresponding card.

Do you send thank you cards for Birthday gifts with or for your children? Just wondering what most people do. I have never received a thank you card for giving a gift, I guess it's not really expected. Oh I guess I should also include that we live far from family so we will not be thanking people in person.

By Andi on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:10 pm:

Yes, I always do. Anytime my children receive a a gift I send a Thank you. I don't include a picture to everyone because that would start costing to much but that is a sweet idea.

By Vicki on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:13 pm:

I always send a thank you and have taught dd to so the same. We even send a thank you to people that give her a gift in person to thank them again. So I would definately send one to someone that we didn't see.

By Kate on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:19 pm:

You've never received a thank you card for giving a gift???? Wow! Sounds like you would be doing a lot of people some favors if you started modeling correct behavior by doing so! Happy Birthday to your son! Enjoy his day!

By Kim on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:20 pm:

You have never received a thank you card????? That baffles me, it truly does! I ALWAYS write thank yous and taught my children how to write thank yous. Even if the people lived next door I would send a thank you. I feel like it is a matter of etiquette and it is also personal, graceful and from the heart! SOrry, this is one of my passions! And I am talking about a hand-written sent through the mail thank you. JMHO.

By Rayanne on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:23 pm:

Yes, I always do.

By Heaventree on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:40 pm:

I guess I should correct my post. I have received thank you cards for wedding and new baby gifts, but I have never received a thank you card for Birthday or Christmas presents.

Thanks for the replies, I guess we are on the right track.

By Jann on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:49 pm:

Most definitely!!! As soon as they could sign their name, they started doing that to the notes I wrote, then we progessed to them writing their own notes.

By Hdelfuego on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:51 pm:

I'm not really a card-sending person or letter-writing person. That being said I do send thank you notes to people who sent a present that didn't actually come to her bday party. My friends had all sent thank you notes, so I sent them one, but not family members who were there. We never did that in my family or my dh's so they would probably think it was weird. I have to admit I really thought it was weird the first time I heard about it, but just bc we never did it growing up.

By Yjja123 on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 03:56 pm:

We have a rule in my house..you cannot touch it (the gift) until you write a thank you. Of course they played with gifts opened in front of people on birthdays, etc but were still expected to write a thank you no later than the next day. When the children were younger they "helped" me compose the letter and then drew and decorated the card. I do like to include pictures of the kids with the gift but do not always get to do so. Since the children were able to write they were responsible for writing their own. They are very good at letter writing and I think the thank you cards were a good foundation for that. It is one of MY pet peeves that I rarely receive thank you's. It does seem that some people choose to no longer follow good etiquette. I think it is sad. JMHO of course.
Yvonne

By Tonya on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 04:12 pm:

I have never sent a thank you card for Christmas or B-day gifts and have never received a thank you for those things either.

By Palmbchprincess on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 07:05 pm:

I try to always do it, though I'm sure it has slipped my mind at some time or another. It's a dying tradition, but it shouldn't be.

By Palmbchprincess on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 07:07 pm:

Oh, one interesting idea in Parents magazine was to have your child hold up a sign saying thank you, sitting with the gift, and take a picture. I thought it was a cute way to get the kids participating in the thank you cards before they can write.

By Bea on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 07:27 pm:

I always send a thank you for gifts and for being entertained in someone's home. I taught my boys to do the same. They don't do it now, but they sure did when I was in charge. Before they were old enough to write their own, I wrote them and enclosed a picture they drew.

By My2cuties on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 08:11 pm:

I walked in a store once to buy my dd all of her 1st birthday stuff, and to my suprise there were no thank-you cards in that section. I walked over to the owner thinking they were sold out and she said they stopped carrying them because no one buys them for the 1st birthday. Wow, i couldn't believe it. Obviously it is not that uncommon for people to not send out thank you notes for birthdays. I just think it is nice to get a card so I try to do that for other people. I do not, however, send thank you notes for Christmas presents, unless they are not present at the opening of the gift, I have just never thought of that before. I don't do it as much as I need to though, hmm, I need to work on that.

By Annie2 on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 08:31 pm:

Always...and my kids do too. Before they could write their name, they would draw a picture. Then I bought them printed cards where they only had to write their name, etc. Now they must write thank yous for all gifts where they did not thank the person in person, unless it was something out of the ordinary. For Christmas I always buy them cute stationery cards and they use them for this purpose. I do allow them to play with the toy, where the clothes, etc but they have a week deadline.
I usually enclose a photo of the child and siblings in the card since they are usually being sent to family or close friends.

By Jann on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 09:17 pm:

For those that only send thank you's for certain gifts...why the distinction? Isn't a gift a gift regardless of the holiday?

By Kim on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 07:24 am:

I was wondering the same thing. I give thank yous for everything also. Any gift or even if someone just did something thoughtful or kind.

By Bea on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 07:42 am:

There's no need to buy special note cards....in fact, strict etiquette dictates that thank yous never be printed. A simple sheet of writing paper will do. A thank you should be sent for every gift. It doesn't matter if a verbal thanks was given. The type of gift should be mentioned...as

Thank you so much for the Game Boy you sent me. I know I'll have a lot of fun playing with it.

...except for money....Then you simply say thank you for the gift, and do not mention any amount.

I wasn't raised to write thank yous. When I became an Army wife, I read etiquette books because I wanted to do it right.

By Kellyj on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 07:52 am:

My DD just turned 2 last weekend. We made thank you cards. She fingerpainted designs on blank 4x6 cards and then I wrote a little note on each of them for each person. I think that it is important to send a thank you note. We usually don't for Christmas because we all exchange and since we are all together we can thank each other in person.

By Meltonmom on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 08:32 am:

Well, this one is kind of embarrassing but true. I made the list while DD opened her presents at her party back in Feb. of the gift and the person who gave it so that we could mention in the thank you card how much DD enjoyed her gift. Well, we have been cleaning out closets to get ready for
Spring and I forgot to mail them!!! So now, in mid-March, I still have the list and the cards, neatly packaged.

I will still send them out, better late than never, I guess!
MM

By Reeciecup on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 09:48 am:

My DD just turned 6 and for the past two years since she could write her own name we have done thank you cards for gifts. Before that we just did family functions with no thank you cards because family didn't expect it. A neat thing we started doing to keep track of gifts is take a picture of DD with the gift and child who gave the gift with our digital camera. Then we print the picture and send it with the thank you note so its a cute momento.

By Babysitbarb on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 03:06 pm:

I do have my DD's send thank you's for their gifts when we have a birthday party.Otherwise I don't unless the gift is sent instead of hand delivered. I did put a new family picture we had done in a lot of her thank you's also.
I sent thank you's this year from my DH and myself because our family's threw us a big surprise 40th b-day.
I don't send thank you's for christmas gifts.

By Jann on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 03:19 pm:

I am still confused as to why some gifts get thank you's and some don't???? I am not trying to be argumentative, I truly don't understand.