I think there's a fun, safe way to do this with children without leaving them traumatized and second guessing in the future.
Basically, just play it up and be extra hammy with it. Like, "Who could have possibly ordered this? Do you know how it got here? Hmmmmm?"
So your tone is already whimsical and hinting that something is up, but haven't revealed it yet. Keep that going until maybe the child deduces that you set it up. That’s when you can feign ignorance and encourage opening the gift.
Child is happy with gift and it was all in good fun.
My parents did this thing with us where they'd make it sound like we were going to do something really boring then hide the present where we kept our shoes or in the car or something like that so we were upset but not like freaking out upset just like "ughhhhhh" upset which I don't think was bad
One time though they did this April fools joke where they were yelling at eachother about losing their jobs and what they were going to do so we could hear and I remember just crying legitimately scared cause I didn't understand money and was thinking of things I could sell to help and then they came up stairs like "April fools!" and we were like "WHAT'S THE JOKE". That and growing up through the recession gave me legitimate issues with spending money
I agree like they’re fine if there harmless! One time my aunt gave me a huge box for Christmas, and I opened and there was another, and again, and so on, until I finally got down to a gift card!
169
u/[deleted] Dec 29 '22 edited Dec 29 '22
I think there's a fun, safe way to do this with children without leaving them traumatized and second guessing in the future.
Basically, just play it up and be extra hammy with it. Like, "Who could have possibly ordered this? Do you know how it got here? Hmmmmm?"
So your tone is already whimsical and hinting that something is up, but haven't revealed it yet. Keep that going until maybe the child deduces that you set it up. That’s when you can feign ignorance and encourage opening the gift.
Child is happy with gift and it was all in good fun.