The Blogfathers

Before I had children and I would ponder what being a parent would be like, I pictured games of catch, helping with homework and dosing out some much-deserved punishments from time to time.

Not once did I ever imagine standing in the toy aisle at the local Wal-Mart two hours before a birthday party that my kids will be attending, looking for “the perfect gift.”

And yet, today, there I was.

I arrived at Wal-Mart with high hopes.  The girl I was buying for is three years old and, I was told, loves Little People and cars. I figured I’d breeze in, find a couple of cool toys and be on my way.  I figured wrong

As I wandered the aisles full of colorful plastic and die cast metal I began to realize there were things I hadn’t considered when purchasing a gift.  First, how much do I spend? You don’t want to appear cheap but then again, you don’t want to get too extravagant either (not to mention that I had to buy two gifts - one from my daughter and the other from my son - one of the downsides of having twins).

Further complicating the matter is that in this melting pot of a world there are still very few toys that celebrate diversity and I was having a hard time choosing something that didn’t represent the background of the girl I was buying for.  That, and I couldn’t find a car with feminine lines that I liked.

So, I wandered the aisles of Wal-Mart, empty cart in hand, social calculator in my head (price x quality of gift = success) trying to find that perfect gift.

Finally, after roaming the toy section for over 25 minutes, I settle on a Little People Airplane set and a six mini-cars from the Disney movie Cars (of which I’ll remove the “Value Pack” sticker on it before bringing it to the party), I feel good about my decision and I am confident that my choices will not ostracize my children in the toddler birthday circuit.  I am ready to head on back to the house and take my kids to the party.
That is, until I realize my choices haven’t ended just yet.

Gift bag or wrapping paper?
*sigh*

This might take a while.

Spring Cleaning, Parenting Challenges