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The Christmas issue

daddyrob's picture

Submitted by daddyrob on Tue, 11/19/2013 - 6:47am

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Step/Bio Father's Den

Ok, so I'm sure I'm not the only one who goes through this when the holidays come. So, my wife and I have 5 daughters together. She has 2 from her 1st marriage, 15 and 5, and I have 2 from my 1st marriage, 11 and 7, and we have one 17 months together. So as we look at the finances for Christmas we have $500 to spend on the children. Ok, so to me, that means $100 a piece, more or less. Now here in lies the issue. My wife wants to get her 5 yr old a Nabi, which is some sort of learning tablet, yet it costs $200. So to me, that's out of the budget. And she's upset about it. I don't want to fight about it, but to me it just seems unfair to them all to spend $200 on one and about $75 on the others. I know it cannot be exactly the same for all, but $200 to $75 just isn't fair to me. What do you guys think?

Disneyfan's picture

Submitted by Disneyfan on Tue, 11/19/2013 - 7:11am

If I were in your wife's shoes, this would drive me insane. She can't get her BD the gift she wants to get her because she has to think about spending equally on her SDs.

If your wife has a job can't you each just buy for your own bios? Or she could use CS to pay for the Nabi.

daddyrob's picture

Submitted by daddyrob on Tue, 11/19/2013 - 7:16am

Yes, she works, but we are on a TIGHT budget as of late. It drives me insane as well, I cannot get my bios all I want to either. The point is if we budget, shouldn't the budget be divided equally?

daddyrob's picture

Submitted by daddyrob on Tue, 11/19/2013 - 7:44am

I am not even going into what they get from their other families. We try to keep it fair and even at our house. And yes, the 17 month old doesn't have a clue as to the value of things. and yes, we can get her a lot more for a lot less. But, 15, 11, and 7 year olds do understand value and can easily feel they were not treated as fair.

Volvotank's picture

Submitted by Volvotank on Thu, 11/21/2013 - 9:19am

I agree with such a blended family its best to go as even as possible with the exception to the littlest one because quite frankly she will probably have more fun with the boxes and opening the gifts then the actual gift. Spending 200 on a tablet for a 5 year old and leaving everybody else out seem very unfair and problematic, if you guys are on a budget she is just going to have to understand that.