Mom Shares The Strict Gift Rules She Received After RSVPing Yes To A Child’s Birthday Party
How do you buy a gift for a toddler that has no color and no packaging?
Shevtsova Yuliya | Shutterstock Children's birthday parties seem simple enough, right? Bring your kid and a gift, eat some cake, and call it a day. But it's not quite that easy anymore, at least not for everyone.
Mom Brittany Robinson recently got invited to a toddler's birthday party, and after RSVPing "yes," she took to TikTok to share the strict rules she received regarding the birthday girl's gift.
A mom said she got strict gift rules that made attending a toddler's birthday party very difficult.
"I don't know about you guys, but birthday parties now are really getting out of control," Robinson said. Just three days before the party, the mother sent out a text to all the other parents with specific requirements for the birthday gifts.
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The gifts could not have color, they could not make noise, and they had to be waste-free. The term "waste-free gifts" confused her a bit, and after googling, she found that it referred to items without plastic, whether that be packaging or the gift itself.
Robinson said that soon after receiving the gift "stipulations," she received another message informing the guests that if they could not abide by the rules, they could give her child a handmade card — not one from the store, though, because that would produce waste. Robinson joked that at that point, she didn't even want to go anymore because she didn't want to make some sort of mistake and be the one who broke the rule. "It was so much easier in the '90s," she said after letting out a deep sigh.
Commenters were also taken aback by the rigid gift requirements.
"Demanding a specific gift rule is INSANE," one commenter said. Another asked, "Are you friends with any of the other moms? What are they doing? This sounds stressful." Others jokingly made suggestions such as a block of wood, a russet potato, and a plant. These rules seemed to make little to no sense to many, especially since Robinson shared that the party was for a three-year-old.
The waste-free rule was a bit easier to swallow than the other gift requirements, however. Perhaps the mom felt a deep connection to climate issues and wanted to reduce her family's carbon footprint. Even the noise restriction made a little sense. There's a chance her child has sensory issues.
But having no color seems pretty harsh, especially since color is an important part of a child's development. According to The Bump, being around color helps with children's cognitive and visual development. Contrasting colors, shapes, and patterns help boost the development of optic nerves and encourage babies’ cognitive development without overstimulating them, said Sanam Hafeez, MD, a neuropsychologist.
Whatever the reasons, the mom's rules made attendance stressful, and that's never a good way to kick off a celebration. If the gifts were a sticking point, she should have insisted that it was a no-gift party and requested that all families attending follow that simple rule.
The guests should have been given more than just three days' notice for the gift stipulations.
If you have these strict requirements over the kind of gifts your child can receive, fine, that's your decision since you're the parent. But the least you could do is alert people ahead of time instead of just three days before the party.
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As one commenter said, "3 days before?? I'm a planner. That gift would have been purchased the day I decided we were going!" It's likely other parents would've behaved similarly, picking out a gift in advance.
If you're going to have any requirements that you want your party guests to abide by, they should be alerted well in advance. Chances are high that a good number of guests that RSVP'd "yes" might have changed their minds had they known.
Sahlah Syeda is a writer who covers relationships, culture, and human interest topics.