Kids and Thank-Yous
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Family on Tuesday, December 29, 2009 4:00 PM
Generous relatives and friends sent us Christmas gifts, and so yesterday I wrote a big pile of thank-you notes.
For my own gifts I’m a fan of the classic: lots of raving about the gift and the generosity of the giver, written longhand on pretty stationery.
So far, I’ve written the same kind of notes on behalf of our children for the presents they’ve received. As Camilla gets older I keep thinking that I should come up with a creative way to make the letters come “from” her, but so far I’ve had no good ideas.
Yesterday as I wrote to my aunt and uncle about how much Camilla loves the present they got her, I asked her if she had any message she wanted to give them. She’s enthralled with her new backpack and carries it everywhere, so I thought she might have something inspired to say. She tilted her head at me and spoke firmly: “Thank. You.”
As adorable as I think my daughter is, I doubt my relatives would be impressed by “Camilla says, ‘Thank. You.’”
I’ve thought about sending pictures of the kids with their gifts, or trying to record short videos of them playing with the toys, but I can’t figure out if those would convey more or less sincere charitable gratitude than an effusive letter.
Also, at some point I know that the thank-you notes should start coming from my children themselves instead of from me on their behalf, but I’m unsure at what age that should happen. When they’re old enough to dictate? When they’re old enough to write? When they’re old enough to write legibly?
I think I should probably not worry about it, and appreciate the fact that my little ones are currently young enough that I can take the easy route of writing thank-yous for them, instead of having to nag them to write their own.
I am, however, curious: what has your family done in regard to kids and thank-you notes? Has it worked well?
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