kids

Sally Obermeder has a clever trick to teach her daughter gratitude.

One of the best things about birthdays as a kid is arguably all the presents.

In the early days when the whole class is still invited to a party, the gift pile can quickly become a mountain-sized pile of new goodies that aren’t always, ahem, appreciated by an overexcited child.

After celebrating her daughter Annabelle’s fifth birthday over the weekend, television presenter Sally Obermeder has come up with a clever way to prevent present overload AND teach her gratitude.

“Struggles with her kindy backpack … yet miraculously manages all the gift bags,” she captioned a snap of her daughter post-party.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I did actually tell her that she can only open one gift a week, then realised she’d still be opening gifts in 2020, so instead I have said one every few days and that you can only open one after a thank you card for the previous one has been written and posted.

“It’s her first party ever so I don’t want to be a killjoy, but feel I need to manage the very generous gift giving. Love to hear anyone’s suggestions or tips on what you do with your kids” (Post continues after gallery.)

The 43 year old’s approach was applauded by many of her followers.

“Fantastic idea! I think that is a great way to instill values and congratulate you and Marcus for taking the initiative. ???? I am going to file that to the memory bank,” commented one user. Another added, “That’s a great idea. A present frenzy can be overwhelming. I know for Xmas with four children we open one at a time and really take our time instead of all going in for the kill…if you get my drift . Enjoy the joy.”

Others shared their own present rules.

“I let mine open everything so we can write all the thank you cards. Then everything gets packed away and they get to chose a new toy to have every week or rainy day,” suggested hels79.

Others recommended doing pre birthday and Christmas clean outs of the toy cupboard and donating the toys to a local play group or salvos, saving half to re-gift, donating an old toy for every new one or asking guests to donate money to charity rather than bringing presents.

ADVERTISEMENT

However not everyone agreed with the restricting approach.

“It’s her birthday. It’s not her birthday every few days. Let her open them. Unless you plan on spacing her presents out forever,” commented one follower.

“I let my kids go nuts!! You only have one childhood and one birthday per year. Let her savour it,” agreed another.

What do you do with your kids and their birthday presents?

What is bird nest parenting? How do you raise a non-homophobe? Help, my kid is a biter. What did your parents do that today would be considered bad parenting? We have all the questions, but we may not have all the answers on the latest episode of This Glorious Mess.