Gift-giving; I am utterly hopeless at it. I once presented a painstakingly-curated stack of novels to a heavily-pregnant friend at her baby shower. Admittedly it was well before children were part of my realm, and I thought I’d knocked it out of the park by giving her something wonderfully adult and just for her. Little did I know they would probably sit unread for years serving as a reminder of the free time she would never have. Yep, go me!
My piece-de-resistance was mortally offending my youthful, vibrant mother with a pull-along shopping trolley for her weekly supermarket visits. In my head I thought it would encourage her to walk to the shops rather than jump in the car for an avoidable five-minute drive. Practical and useful, right? She viewed the item as a totem of old-age and we never spoke of it again. My husband is not much better, last Christmas he excitedly presented me with skis and poles. I was six weeks pregnant!
With this stellar track record of surprise and delight when it comes to buying presents in our family, I was thrilled to read about a new trend for kid’s parties – The Fiver Party! The idea is that if your child is having a birthday party, guests are asked to bring a $5 note in lieu of a gift to go towards a big-ticket present.
Winner!!! You don’t have to run around the shops at the eleventh hour looking for a suitable, age-appropriate, semi-educational, politically-correct, non-duplicate gift! It’s the answer to so many problems when it comes to taming toy overload, it’s a win for your sanity, your budget and you can polish your halo, since it’s environmentally friendly.
My daughter turns three very soon, so I will be doing all my mum friends a solid favour and hosting a Fiver Party for her. And, while there may be a bit of initial icky-ness about asking for cold hard cash, instead of a gift (although the norm now, this does seems to create a few stiff backs among the oldies when it comes to engagements and weddings), I am hoping that the low cost and ease of it all, will help everyone get over those awkies pronto.
I will let you know how it goes, but I personally will rejoice when my kids are invited to their first Fiver Party!
I really do hope this is a “thing” that’s here to stay!
About the Author:
Michelle Newman is a mum-of-two and lives in Caringbah. Her hobbies include scrolling on Instagram, talking about sleep, or lack of it, and buying wildly-inappropriate last-minute gifts!
