Gift Registries, Are They Worth The Drama?

Posted by Lara in Moms & Dads & Babies | 3 comments

 

I am writing about this because I recently witnessed a mom getting barraged on Twitter about being an “unfit” mom because she had a registry for her son’s first birthday.  Abusive, not providing for your child, not educating your children can classify as unfit, but a gift registry. This is the site she used. Now, I do admit back before I had C2, I might have thought the concept of a gift registry was a bit greedy, but no longer.

The practice of registries has been around since 1924, when Chicago-founded department store Marshall Field’s first instituted the bridal registry as a means for the engaged couple to indicate chosen china, silver and crystal patterns to family and friends.

As some might recall, I made C2 Amazon Wish list public for his 1st birthday and the reason why is because I had so many people ask me what C2 wanted and I found myself copying/pasting the links into an emails and repeating that process several times.   So to be more effective, save time and reduce frustration, we made the decision to go “public”.  I did have a lot of hesitation about this because I knew some people would view it as being greedy.  Or people would think we expect everyone to purchase him a gift.  Or this may be considered rude or tacky by some people.  Yes, as I suspected I did receive some comments.

But, before I move on, I do want to make this clear. We were, are and always will be grateful for any gift C2 receives and by no means do we expect anything or everything from anyone.

Now my question, is why ask for suggestions then make a “to do” out of it when a website with gift ideas is created?  Yes, there are pros and cons to creating a gift registry, but I believe the pros outweigh the cons.

If a wish list was created for my nieces and nephews – that I do not see often – my life would be so much easier.  Even if I do not pick something from the list, the list gives me an idea of the type of toys, activities, clothing style they like or are currently into.  Also, if clothes are on the registry, it generally has the size to order, which even if I do not buy those exact clothes I know the size to order – with as many nieces and nephews as I have this would help me keep sizes correct.  In addition, if a registry was created it would provide me an opportunity to get a gift both the parents and the child both agree upon instead of buying a gift that is a duplicate or something that is played with once and then is never touched again.

More than 85% of the world’s online population has used the internet to make a purchase – increasing the market for online shopping by 40% in the past two years – according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on internet shopping habits, so why not create a registry and make it easier for those buying the gifts.

“When The Nielsen Company conducted its first global survey into internet shopping trends two years ago, approximately 10% of the world’s population (627 million) had shopped online,” said Bruce Paul, VP, Customized Research, Nielsen US. “Within two years, this number has increased by approximately 40% (to 875 million).”

With each new generation, they become more computer savvy and I do believe that this will be one of the ways gift giving and the “ask” will continue to grow.

I know some people will disagree with this post, but I wanted to share my thoughts. If you develop an Amazon Wish List or a gift registry, you can be assured I will not be one of the people that will give you gruff.  Happy registering.