Do you sneak peeks at your kids' presents?

[ecoteat]

We've been getting a lot of Christmas packages from out of town family and stashing them away until Christmas. In past years I would always peek at the ones for dd--partially to screen them ahead of time, and partially because the snooping was nearly as satisfying as snooping at my own gifts. A few packages just arrived and I'm tempted to peek at them, but I realize that it's silly. She's 4.5. All of our family knows us well and buys nice gifts. They obviously aren't for me. But I'll probably peek anyway! Am I the only one that does this?

[mamazee]

Oooh I've been so tempted!  LOL!  I can't stand surprises!  I am not worried about what people send, no one is going to send razor blades or liquid mercury or anything, I just am curious.  :D

[mrskingred]

I must be odd then because it never even occurred to me to check what my family have sent for my 4yo. I do read what's listed on the custom forms though.

[AllisonR]

Nope. I rather enjoy the actual surprise at Christmas.

I think it is genetic though. My sister is a big peeker. She also liked to steam open envelopes and read diaries.... I'm not a peeker - just no urge there. My kids are not either. They are 4 and 6 and see where their presents are down in the basement and know they are for them, but I just tell them to leave the piles alone and they ignore them. It's personality / genetic, imo.

[mattemma04]

No, I don't peek but I do allow the kids to open one present a day leading up to Christmas day so they get to satisfy their curiousity early.

[zebra15]

Yes, DS is 10 and I still pre-open his stuff.  Now let me say there are family issues but I always check what they send before I let DS have it.

[KempsMama]

I peak-because of a horrible thing that happened to my DH as a child.  His family received toys for tots, or a simalar program, and his mom wouldn't check the gifts, just put them under the tree until Christmas.  My DH uses a wheelchair, and cannot walk at all since birth.  One year, his TFT gift was ICE SKATES.  It was traumatizing, for him and his mom.  While neither of our kids have special needs, I still check out the gifts ahead of time.

[ProtoLawyer]

We don't, but if we knew someone had a history of sending wildly inappropriate gifts, we would. (We're not too restrictive with things like branding, junk food, stuff we wouldn't personally buy but it's not inherently bad or unsafe or whatever, but if, say, Aunt Martha sent a copy of "Saw" to the 8-year-old, we'd be screening Aunt Martha's gifts from there on out.)

[indigosky]

I do peek, but not because I'm curious. Two reasons:

(1) DD is 3, and at this point she's still pretty "wholesome" in terms of not knowing licensed characters, TV themes (we don't have a TV), etc. People give/send her stuff that (a) is pure junk, in terms of both toxicity and liklihood to fall apart instantly, based on Amazon reviews and (b) is meaningless to her. So we've given some gifts away.

(2) She gets SO MANY gifts from relatives and neighbors (upwards of 40 this December) that we get her almost nothing ourselves. But, a lot of people like to buy her clothes (especially women who never had a daughter, I notice), and some give "educational" gifts (like learn-to-read flashcards). At 3, DD doesn't care about clothes, and the flashcards are way beyond her level. So I peeked at gifts to make sure she was getting enough toys that would be fun for her. If not, we would have gotten some. My conclusion was that there were some nice toys in the mix, so we only gave her 3 gifts, spending a total of $5. Nice!

[Polliwog]

No, I don't.  And my children open mailed gifts when we receive them.  We don't wait.

[ecoteat]

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Although there were a couple things I was tempted to peek at this time and I didn't. Turns out they are both things I'd rather dd not have, but oh well. One is chemically-treated pajamas. But they are a size too big, so that's how we are getting around her wearing them right now. They are really cute, so I'm bummed that they have to ruin them with chemicals! The other is a couple Disney Princess coloring and watercolor books. I know some people have no issues with that, but I feel good about holding out on images of girls with impossible bodies whenever I can for now, so I'm continuing that. I know I'm more picky than most, though!

[octobermom]

 I delebertly open presents from my MIL. I do this for both safety and to mentally prepare my child. MIL while perfectly capable is known for giving down right odd bad well stupid (sorry but true) and sometimes dangerous gifts. This year she sent my 8 year old 3 badly stained cloth hand towels she claimed came from her Great aunt who shes is named in honor of (she isn't really) and an old pencil box with some broken crayons and dried out markers and chewed up pencil stubs.. I removed the towels and wased them as best I could, and removed all the broken useless art stuff and bought a new package of crayolas and a small marker package and put those back and re wrapped..

 I do NOT get along with my MIL and it totaly disgusts me shes does junk like this. Its not an age thing its not a financial thing (they are quite well off) it is just mean and it has a long back story... BUT neverless she is still her grandmother she likely wont be around much longer and I try my hardest to give my DD a small degree of good memories from her. and not hey guess what your not worth more than old useless junk according to your gandmother.

Deanna

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by octobermom 

 I delebertly open presents from my MIL. I do this for both safety and to mentally prepare my child. MIL while perfectly capable is known for giving down right odd bad well stupid (sorry but true) and sometimes dangerous gifts. This year she sent my 8 year old 3 badly stained cloth hand towels she claimed came from her Great aunt who shes is named in honor of (she isn't really) and an old pencil box with some broken crayons and dried out markers and chewed up pencil stubs.. I removed the towels and wased them as best I could, and removed all the broken useless art stuff and bought a new package of crayolas and a small marker package and put those back and re wrapped..

Geez, that's bizarre!  I'll sometimes peek.  My ds didn't like surprises when he was younger and he really felt that it was a mean trick to wrap up something mundane like clothes or books in pretty wrapping paper and give it as a gift, as if it were going to be something really fun.  He would have honestly thought the gift giver was playing a tasteless prank and not have had fond thoughts of the gift giver.  I thought it was more important to have good associations with relatives so I'd unwrap those sorts of things and just tell him so and so sent you some new clothes, and he'd reply, "oh that's nice" rather than thinking they were cruel.  Now that he's older, he appreciates books that are to his taste and special clothes (t-shirts with something cool on them).  He still has specific tastes in toys and if I suspect something if from a genre of toys he never plays with (like puzzles) I might peek and go ahead and exchange it so it doesn't just contribute to clutter, collecting dust for 5 years until he is ready to donate it still unused.  

[Mama2Bug]

I peek at all gifts mailed to DD. I have extremely passive-agressive in-laws who love to send her things that they know we won't allow, just to revel in us having to be the "bad guys." I also have a mother who insists that she knows best, our opinions are silly and sends whatever she likes- without regard to safety, age or DD's interests. Rather than have DD sad or frustrated by opening a gift that she cannot keep, I peek ahead of time and wrap the acceptable gifts back up.