ugh i have a lot more sympathy for my older relatives who never knew what kinds of gifts to buy me..

[dragonlady7]

via http://ift.tt/1O3kttN:
ugh i have a lot more sympathy for my older relatives who never knew what kinds of gifts to buy me because i am staring at amazon’s “toys for boys!” page and thinking of my 6-year-old nephew I haven’t seen in like a year, who apparently likes sports, and I am like an alien from another planet here, what on this page would even be remotely interesting to him, oh my god I am my uncle reincarnated. (his specialty was buying us gifts that needed batteries, but no batteries, and then breaking the gifts when he tried to put them together. he was a precious cinnamon roll and I don’t think he knew how well we understood him anyway and didn’t mind. At least I have that consolation, but I wish we’d told him.)

Comments

[kkatowll.livejournal.com]

Yeeeeah. For 12 years now (how could it be that long?) I've been shopping for a little girl who I see once every other year (if that) who also speaks another LANGUAGE and lives in another country. Sometimes I've knocked it out of the park. Other times...ominous silence.

I've found that you have to get to page three or four before you find good presents - the first couple pages are all the most common stuff, which they already have.

Here are things that went over well:
The stomp-on piano (rollup mat that actually looks like and sounds like a piano and is about 12 feet long) - maybe not for age 6 though?

awesome experiments science kit - this was at age 6-7

second awesome experiments chemistry kit

and - here's hoping - this year stamp-on nails stamps

Things that were utter failures:
Goldie Blox engineering kit (too easy)
legos (too normal)
porcelain doll (come on! She loved dolls! How was this a bust??)

So, good luck. Let's hope the thought counts.