Gifts for Two Year Old Boys

I wanted to thank everyone for your birthday present suggestions for Milo and Huck. We gave them a Little Tykes Picnic Table, Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, and the Melissa and Doug Easel.

I really wanted to get Milo the vacuum that's shaped like a cow that Nikki recommended, but to avoid endless fighting I would have had to buy two of them. The other gifts have sharing capabilities built-in, which I prefer to buying two of the same thing.

The only unique things the boys have that are truly their own are their uglydolls that their grandparents gave them for Christmas. (Ox belongs to Huck and Wedgehead to Milo.) Everything else they just have to share.

I know parents who have different theories on this. If you're a parent of twins or kids close in age do you prefer to buy two identical gifts, two different gifts, or one gift to share?

Comments

[dmatthews]

I am a mom of twins and we believe like you buy toys that they could share and as they got older they never worried about who had what toy. Now and 13 they don't say anything about sharing Ds or wii games they belong to all in the house. They also learn not to fight other at play groups when they had to share toy's when they are little

[Vicki (zmama)]

Mine are 18 months apart, and have always had very different taste in toys. The only problem we ever had was one wanting something if the other got something. Sharing was a fact of life for them since day one, and although there was the occasional fight over who got to do something first, it wasn't usually too bad.

Sharing is a good thing. Sounds like you are handling it very well.

[Ruth H]

I'm afraid you just pulled my chain.. As a very mature twin I would like to comment. If learning to share is the issue then I would say all the children should share the same toys, not just the twins. I sure they do already. But, I remember having only one cake, never my own, and as much as I love my sister, at age 70 we still get somewhat agitated at the injustice of it all! (G) You should buy one unique gift for each of your boys,something small and not expensive, but something that says this is mine, mine alone. Their sister has plenty of toys in that category, I am sure. You can get larger gifts for sharing but they need something uniquely their own from their Mom and Dad. After a certain age I'm pretty sure you will hear this from them. You do not want them to be totally alike in every little thing, goodness knows they will have a predisposition to that built in. If you plan to separate them in school it is time to start now by letting them be individuals, especially with their birthday.

[Megan Morrone]

Hi Ruth,
My apologies for pulling your chain. I will definitely take your expert advice next time. In my defense, I did make them each their own cake this year.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/meganmorrone/462080214/in/set-72157600083047773/

[Nikki]

I'm not sure what gave my parents this bright idea but with my brother and sister, they started getting them gifts on each other's birthdays. They're only 10 1/2 months apart, one has a birthday in June, the other in July. I think my parents thought they were doing a good thing, that maybe they wouldn't understand why one was getting toys and one wasn't. This went on for about 4 or 5 years, finally my dad said enough because they were actually fighting over the gifts or were mad about not getting something and it wasn't even their birthday! The irony of it all was that at Christmas, we had toys that were our own and other larger toys that we were to share.

[Tim]

Heh,
I'm a far less mature twin than Ruth but I'll 2nd her advice. I remember relatives giving my brother and I a single gift with both our names on it. My sister who would have a birthday right before ours would get her own gift and that made my brother and I feel lousey. And buying two of the same thing isn't always a solution either...sometimes we'd both get something but one would be blue and one brown(or some such sillyness) and we both wanted the blue one so one of us would gloat, the other sulk and fights would ensue. (heh, great times :)
Thankfully, we're Geminis...I can't imagine if our birthdays were near Christmas! We'd get get gifts labeled "Happy Birthday AND Merry Xmas" to both of us....a quadruple insult. :D

[Nikki]

Ok, maybe a twin here could explain this for me Tim. Why is it there are people who will buy one gift for children that have December birthdays? I've never understood their logic. If the birthday was in June, they'd get them a present and another at Christmas. Having a shared birthday either as a twin or a neat coincidence doesn't change the number of people! It's one of those "logic" things that eludes me.

[invisible]

Well, I guess I am the only lazy parent here. I bought 2 of almost everything for them. They are now teens and how does one share an iPod?

I guess being from a family that forced me to chare simple things like tshirts and shoes annoyed me to no end. In turn I bought 2... if it wasnt in the budget then they did without until I had enough for both.