This mom’s birthday gift idea for kids catches a lot of flack from commenters

This mom’s hack for buying a universal birthday gift for kids at different birthday parties to help with the mental load is receiving a lot of flack online, but I personally find it genius. Where we live in the city, it’s a requirement that every child who has a birthday has to invite the entire class if they have a party. The school year is filled with multiple birthday parties every weekend, and in turn, if the parents decide not to add the, “No gifts, please,” line, then they’ll have 25 new toys to organize in their home after the party, or potentially even trash. 

Not only does this get expensive for the parents having to buy multiple gifts for every birthday party they get invited to every weekend (we had FOUR last weekend), but it’s stressful because most of the time, we don’t even know the child, much less what they like or dislike. Thankfully (perhaps?),  Mom and celebrant Sarah Clarke has got us covered with her birthday gift idea.

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A post shared by sarah clarke wedding celebrant (@sarahclarkecelebrates)

She posted a video on her Instagram sharing that she gets the same gift for every child when they have a birthday—a “voucher” or gift card for them to spend at a coffee shop. Her reasoning is the child can get a hot chocolate, some cake, or both, and enjoy having a family experience. And if the parents decide to take it for themselves, then they get a little break. It’s a win-win, right?

While there were many folks in the comments who loved this idea, there were more who were very vocal about how this was just terrible.

“What… So you give the child a gift that the parents just take … What a crappy gift.” one disgruntled viewer commented. “You absolutely buy the kid a present! Gross watch/click bait. You just don’t buy toys… ugh.” said another. 

Others found her idea to be lazy. “If someone did this I would be annoyed. It’s like no thought or effort to know what someone likes.”

There were some positives, however, pointing out how materialistic so many of these haters seemed to be. “Some of you are so materialistic is actually scary. Why would you want another toy when you could have your quality time paid for?” they said.

“On the flip side, I think this is incredibly thoughtful? Are people expected to know all of the interests of each individual in their kid’s class?” said another fan.

What say you? Is this idea brilliant, lazy, rude, or somewhere in between?