blonde poker forum

I'm looking to buy an assortment of toys for various ages which will be given to the poorer families in the town by the Salvation Army. My budget is the Sunday game buy in at Luton of £100 - I'm figuring the kids will get more fun from my £100 than I will!

I have no idea what to get. What do kids want? Do they still play games, do colouring in, is a teddy a good present - all kids need a best friend to confide in/something to cuddle surely? Are board games a no no? Is there anything apart from the hamsters that kids really are into this year that is relatively cheap? I'm steering away from computer games because the kids might not have the consoles etc.

I would rather get a fair few smaller presents than a couple of big ones.

Ideas please. Tnx.

My kids love Jenga, Uno and Yahtzee.  Colouring is a good one too, but be sure to include crayons or markers as they might not have them.  Teddies are kind of a thing of the past except for the really small kids.  The big lego blocks are good.  Soccer balls and anything to do with sport is also good.  Will keep thinking and add more if I come up with them. 

toucan puppet imo :D

board games are good imo Trace and you can get lots of the kids classics with £100. Things like connect 4, Guess Who, Hungry Hippos are mostly under a tenner and are always gonna be winners :)up

Board games = bad idea.


Poor kid, only child ... finally gets a pressie at Xmas, only to find it's a board game and she or he has no one to play it with.


Art sets are a winner, as are books and hat/scarf sets.

yep - i was thinking that as I was an only child so board games were not much fun tbh although I loved them when I had someone to play with. But - they might have a load of kids and no money - arrgh - who said it was better to give than to receive?!

I'll get some footballs for deffo - can play on their own or with mates.

am I the only parent that plays board games with their only child? We love them here!

Lets face it, Kids that are in desperate need of an xmas pressie aren't that likely to have parents that will sit and play board games with them.

Wow, incredible sweeping statement!

Just because a parent can't provide presents, does not mean they aren't likely to play a board game with their kids.

Probably less likely than someone who can though.

Why probably?

Not being awkward, I just don't see the reasoning.

A parent finds themselves in hard times, very short of money for whatever reason - how does that equate to them being less likely to play with their child?

Wow. What a humungous pile of ball bags!!

Whether or not a parent will play a board game with their kid comes down purely to whether they can be arsed. It has nothing to do with wealth.

There's plenty of multai parents out there who just pay a nanny to play with the kids because they can't be bothered.

Exactly what I was trying to get at, having no money is not a factor in whether a parent will spend time with their child, IMO.

He perhaps just thinks that all poor people are crack addicts and to be fair most crack addicts aren't up for a game of monopoly.

You are assuming that every kid who needs a present on Xmas day has a parent .... is that what you call an "incredible sweeping statement! "  ?

Nice swerve attempt, but that isn't what you were getting at!

OP states that the presents are for "poorer families".

At least one parent is implied in this statement.

It was !

When I was younger (1 of 3 kids) we had fk all money, that didnt stop the old man spending hours with pen and paper playing battleships and shed loads of other games with all 3 of us .... you dont need to spend money on your kids to give them a good life ... give them the gift of YOUR TIME, thats fkin priceless !!

Kind of contradicting what you said earlier, no?

.....So in that case, kids that could use a present or two are just as likely to have parents that will sit and play with them...

Glad we cleared that up.

Oh bollocks ... I concede.

Now 2 women are involved, what chance do I have. :D

Take them down the local recycling centre for a day out playing 'lucky dip'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/8401076.stm

We used to do this, very seldom though, my parents were poor so couldn't be arsed with us much.

I don't mean to be controversial (for once!) and think it's a really nice thing that Tracey is doing.

I wouldn't have said what Kev did (though it's no huge deal imo) just to avoid arguments except I can see his thinking.

Also, Matt, there is a HUGE line between multai parents and parents who can simply afford to buy their children a christmas present. I wasn't referring to rich people at all - dunno how you made that leap!

You have to be mega poor to not be able to buy your kid a present for £10 say, and I'd imagine this was the case for less than 1% of people in the UK.

In cases of such extreme poverty, would the children not be taken away? My dad was, for 2 years as a kid when living in unfit conditions. His parents tried their best but were working 7 days a week from morning til 1 am - I don't think they ever played a game with him. Not saying that's the case generally but might help you understand where my line of thought is coming from.

If not then parents are possibly ill in which case it may be fair to assume they aren't up to playing games?

Or poor because of things like drugs/alcohol/gambling which probably wouldn't make them wanna whip out the monopoly board with the little ones.

I wasn't going to point that out directly, but as you already have...

Popped on here during my coffee break during the middle of an uberbusy afternoon, for a quick browse. Walk slap bang into a domestic.

Mannn, I run good :D :D

Tried that, couldnt be arsed to queue ... too many people with the same idea :D

LOL ... not quite code red yet, come back at knocking off time though, there may be developments :D

It doesn't have to be extreme poverty for parents not to be able to afford Christmas presents, if it comes down to paying for rent and bills or buying Christmas presents then the bills should come first (but they still have the money to pay one or the other - so not extreme poverty).

In practice a lot of families in that situation take out extra credit to pay for Christmas because they're idiots, but just because they're poor - and in many cases stupid in that way - doesn't have any corellation with how much attention they pay their kids in terms of playing games and spending time with them.

It does have a corellation with spending time with them on things like homework and reading - but that's a different topic.

Maybe I just grew up in a very privileged family but imo only having money to pay rent and bills is ridic poor.

No ridic poor is when you don't have enough money to pay the rent and bills

I would imagine the number of families in this position and either going without any luxuries or racking up the credit is huuuuge

A new hat's always welcomed...

Llast week gave away my full size snooker table to a local church youthclub. FML the room is now baby play area :(

I got a lovely thankyou card signed by all the kids that go to the club for the table, its nice to do stuff like this :) I am glad you helping others out tracey

I bet most families go with the credit option and think about the problems when it's too late though.

So do people think that Kev is wrong that parents who are able to afford Crimbo presents for their kids (not to be confused with Multaiii ppl) are equally likely to play with their kids than those who aren't? If so, why?

I just think that in many cases, the circumstances which led to them not being able to buy xmas presents would be the same reasons they don't/can't play with their kids as much.

ORLY?

The WW2 is over you know.

Titanic sank as well.

Most families in a troubled spot obv. Not most in general.

Don't get the WW2 ref tho - it's pretty relevant today.

someone please remind me of the ding story from last year which relates to the buying of xmas pressies for kids. I can't remember it but it was definitely funny

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=38781.0

 rotflmfao ;tightend; ;applause;