Gift ideas for Son/Daughter.

This is a tricky issue. Gifting is thought to be very easy, that is the reason why many may go wrong in gifting a child, without even realizing it.

Why should a parent gift. Many try to compensate their absence in their child’s life using gifts. This is not correct. A child needs some of his/her parent’s time in his/her life. To the extent possible, a parent needs to provide the same.

These needs are maximum at childhood and slowly tapers off into teenage. In this period of need, sufficient parent attention is the ingredient that makes or break parent child bond. Parents are to understand this and make all efforts to fill this need for a child. Thus in the initial period, presence of parents itself is a big gift and to the extent possible, a child is not to be deprived of this.

It may be better if a child is not exposed to luxuries from the beginning. Basic necessities are OK but children should not be encouraged to depend on helpers for small things also. For this, parents need to lead by example.

Coming to giving gifts, parents should prefer giving experience rather than things to children. May be some family time, family activity etc. Each parent can customize this experience to suit their skill and interest. For example, a parent who has an interest in art can take the child to an art exhibition and explain the nuances. This will be better than giving a toy worth Rs 1000.

All the above does not preclude a parent from giving a gift. On the contrary gifts are to be given and they will be cherished by children. However, picking up a gift is to be done with utmost caution.

While buying a gift one should not go only by price and age group given on the box. One should think whether a child has aptitude for the gift. If not the effort will be wasted. For this, a parent should have good understanding of the child’s likings.

If a gift is tuned to child’s liking, the gifting process will enrich the bond. Also there are some gift ideas for boys at various ages. Some of them may be useful for girls also, but I did not mention the same as I did not have girl child.

Age	Idea	Example
0-2 years	Toy	Toy that moves, makes noise	Parent should play with the child, to the extent possible.
2-5 years	Book	Books from NBT and books with lot of pictures few words.
	Toys	Toys like lego blocks, and various sets for improving hand eye coordination
6-8 years	Books	NBT and some foreign books with good story line and books with some logic and adventure	Parent should read for the child and help child understand basic blocks of English language.
6-8 years	DIY kits	Lego, Mechanix etc	Please do not give ready made toys. With a DIY kit, a parent can get more returns on his investment for a gift.
8-10 years	Books	As above, but consider age of the recipient.	Adventure books
	DIY kits	More intricate kits, like cubic fun, electricity and science kits etc
	Origami kit/books	One interesting gift. There are many free videos on you tube for making many things from origami paper. As such this is an inexpensive give which gives a child hours of fun, if taught well.
	Cubes	There are various cubes available to be solved. There are many tutorials on you tube for solving them.

After the age 10, a boy is ready for better things. Let him work on things like carpentry, pottery(some 1- 2 hour sessions are available in metros).

Slowly a child can be initiated into more complex things like electronics etc.

In this post I tried to capture some of the ideas which I used successfully for my sons. My ideas are slowly evolving and not fool proof.

Any other ideas, please share in comments.