Monday, October 21, 2013

Why Is It Difficult For Parents To Buy Gifts?

Parents should be the best people in the world at buying gifts. After all, they know their children better than anyone, particularly at a young age when it is easy to gauge children’s interests and they’ll happily speak with their parents about any and all subjects.

a little gift for you
















However, parents are notorious for being decidedly dreadful when it comes to buying great gifts. We’re not just talking about buying what your children have specifically asked for, either.

Blame the Parents

As children, most of us have a hard time accepting that our parents know best, or at least that they act in our best interests at all times.

We’ve all been in a situation where we thought we were getting a particular gift, only to open something and see that it wasn’t what we wanted or expected. However, this isn’t necessarily a problem. As long as a gift has a meaning and purpose, it will generally be accepted.

The problem is that parents will then start trying to give an awkward explanation about why they’ve chosen a particular gift and go on to sell the benefits of it. Many parents struggle to remember when they were children themselves, and unwittingly turn into their own parents!

Great Expectations

While you never want to target children and say that they’re being unrealistic or shouldn’t ask for certain things, modern society now means that children are readily asking for things like iPods and games consoles, where in the past dolls from A Girl for All Time and similar traditional toys would be at the top of wish lists.

As much as parents do need to be taken to task sometimes for buying a particular gift, if a child is so tunnelled into wanting the latest gadget, it is often impossible to make any difference at all.

Collectible Items

There’s nothing wrong with parents purchasing collectible items for their children. However, if parents want to buy these, then they ought to do so outside of usual gifting occasions like Christmas and birthdays.

After all, who wants to open a toy that looks amazing one morning, only to be told that it must stay in its box because it will be worth much more in years to come? As if any child is going to take notice of that!

Buying for Now

Some parents don’t believe in spending a lot of money on toys because they think children will quickly get bored of them. At this point, parents will feel they’ve wasted their money. Of course, this is understandable enough, but what they don’t often realise is that if they’d spend more on something more engaging, they wouldn’t be in this situation.

However, there still exists a catch-22 situation where parents don’t want to pay the extra money through fear of the same thing happening, so stick to the tried and tested routines where if a child gets bored ‘at least they didn’t spend much.

As much as we’re saying parents are bad at buying presents, many do a great job, which is not to say their children get everything they want, but what they do get is well received and excellent for its purpose.
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Joanne is a parent to two children and openly admits that he finds it difficult to buy presents, for a variety of reasons. To get around this, she attends regular meetings with local parent groups to discuss the latest toy trends and the best ideas for buying children's gifts.

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

How To Remember Your Special Occasion

There are many special occasions that we all have in our lives however very few of us keep a record of it. A few relatives take pictures on an old digital camera but apart from that the memories stay only in the back of our minds which is a sad thing. We should be able to look back on past occasions and have greatly detailed records of what happened, who attended and what music was playing.

Event videography
This article will highlight three ways to keep a record of your special occasion and will explain why it is so important.

We live in a technologically advanced world and it really isn’t that difficult to keep a record of something, there are video cameras, cameras and voice records that you can buy from most supermarkets nowadays.
We are extremely advanced and we should embrace that when it comes to those special occasions.

Video Recording

This is probably the best way to keep an account of your special occasion. Whether it be a wedding, christening or birthday you can’t go wrong by video recording it. There are many ways you can go about it, employ someone to record the event at usually a high cost or look internally and see if one of the guests will do it.
If it’s your event and you ask someone to do it, they usually will however if you struggle to find anyone willing then don’t be afraid to spend some money to get it done. This is something that is timeless, it will never get out of date and you have a vivid and moving memory to show your children and grandchildren as they grow up.
I can’t overstate the brilliance of recording an event such as a birthday, all those moments that you can only dream about reliving again all on one file that you can watch back at your own leisure. If you take the plunge and decide to host a big event I don’t think the added cost of a cameraman will set you back that much in the long run.

DSLR Photography

The technology within cameras nowadays in incredible and this means that the photographs a cameraman can take are incredible. Scanning photos onto your computer and distributing them to guests and social media means that everyone there can enjoy the event after it has finished.
This is another great way to record your special occasion. DSLR photography is on the rise and there are many budding photographers out there who will do the job for very little cost. It is important that you do your research and ensure you find someone who is of good quality.

Dictaphones

This is a sneakier way of recording the day but if you leave one of these on each table then you can get a great variety of conversation recorded that can be played back once you get home.
I am sure many people will be against this idea but if you can do it discreetly it can provide some entertainment in the days after.
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Andrew is an author with a love for modern technology. He graduated with a business degree and now is a full time writer with over 10 years’ experience, writing about a variety of topics.