Mum sparks controversy over her hack to regift gifts given to her children
A mum has sparked controversy online after sharing a hack in which she regifts things back to her children that they have received from others.
The mum said she wasn’t sure if she was a “terrible person” or a “genius” as she sat wrapping up presents for her children, she explained that she and her husband had been buying toys and presents over the past year and then keeping them in a bin in the basement ready to gift to their children once it came time to give presents.
However, she went on to explain that her children had received so many presents in the past year from their friends, and family for their birthday that the parents had started to add the overflow of gifts to the bin of presents they kept in the basement too. She explained in part that this was because the toys wouldn’t be “played with” and also there wasn’t space for all of them at the same time upstairs where the family spent their time.
The predicament came when the mum went to get presents for her daughter's birthday to wrap up but she couldn’t tell which were presents she and her husband had bought and which were gifts. Elizabeth Longshaw who is an actress and a model shared her conundrum on TikTok in early December questioning the ethics of it and captioning it, “What’s your take?” and to date, her video has received 2.3 million views.
In the video, she says: “I'm doing something super controversial with my kids' birthday and Christmas presents this year. 'Half of me is like, ‘You're a terrible person, you're crossing the line.’ And the other half is like, ‘You are a literal genius.’”
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“I took maybe half of those gifts and put them downstairs in a bin to save because it was way too much. The gifts wouldn't even fit anywhere upstairs and we couldn't possibly play with them all.
“It was overwhelming, it was too much. So we put them in a bin.”
She added: “Throughout the last year, my husband and I, have been trying something new where we kind of buy things on sale or get things at garage sales and keep them downstairs in the basement in a bin for gifting at birthdays or Christmas. It's great ... But I put them in the same bin of the gifts we've been collecting throughout the year.”
Sounding confused and quite unsure in the TikTok she said: “Now, I'm wrapping up [my daughter's] birthday presents and I'm going through the bin and I'm like, ‘Did we buy her this or did her friend Chloe buy her this?’’'
“I don't remember. Especially because my husband and I both add to the bin so he could have bought this, I could have bought this, we could have gotten this at a garage sale, I don't know.”
“I'm gonna wrap up this gift and put it from mum and dad, and it might not be from us. What do you think? Does this make me a terrible person or is this such a genius gifting hack for kids who just get way too much?”
However, Elizabeth’s TikTok spread a fire across her comment with almost 1,000 comments being left on her video. Whilst many saw how the hack could be useful some were more cautious about the cost-effective hack.
One person commented and said: “She WILL be telling her therapist that mommy took her birthday presents away and gave them to her for Christmas when she’s older.” Whilst Elizabeth replied: “I hope not the fact that she didn’t notice they were gone tells me that 20 gifts for a 3-year-old is far too much and overwhelming.”
Whilst another added: “Genius. Soon you’ll be buying laptops and £200 sneakers. Enjoy this time.”
Another person added: “My youngest bday was last week. She got way too many gifts. We sorted through them and put few away for Christmas. She is 2 so she won’t care.”
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A fourth person remarked that she most likely wouldn't be using the hack for much longer. They said: “This is fine, she’s three! But this is probably the last year for it. She’ll remember after 4ish.”
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