What’s the best gift for the teen or tween? The gift of choice! Thanks to Happy Cards® for sponsoring this post.
Gifting in this age seems to run the fine line between wanting to give the gift of choice and also wanting to choose something personal. I think the happiest medium is a combination of the two. Enter Happy Cards®. Each gift card gives the freedom to shop, eat and play at a variety of retailers tailored to the recipient. In this case, my recipient was tween-age Kayla.
With school back in session and Kayla entering 5th grade, we’ve recruited her to do a job that goes beyond traditional chores. She’s our in-house Mandarin tutor for Blake, who just began kindergarten at the school she’s attended for the last few years.
It’s a job Kayla is taking seriously and I’m grateful, as well as surprised. Tensions amongst the two have been at an all time high recently. Which is super fun when you’re the supervising parents.
As Blake gains his own voice and asserts himself, it seems Kayla is left reeling. Establishing herself in a teaching role has restored her identity as the older sibling in a productive way that has Blake eating out of the palm of her hand as she dispenses knowledge.
To reward Kayla for going above and beyond as a sister, I wanted to give her something bigger than the usual offer of a trip for ice cream. As a tween, Kayla has recently discovered the joy of being a gift card recipient. Especially because she knows that Craig and I give her autonomy over how to spend gift cards. We’ll answer questions or help her in the decision making process if she seems torn but otherwise, we butt out.
These are the years where most of us gift givers start to question if we know what these bigger kids want. Sports equipment? Clothes? Books? Endless snacks? Outings with friends? After a lengthy assessment of the gift card section of my local grocery store I went with the Happy Teen gift card. It felt like the gift of choice with some degree of personalization and no activation fees to purchase or use Happy Cards®.
As the cashier rang me up she took a good look at Happy Cards ® for Teens and commented on how she could give that to her nephew. I concurred. With offerings like Dave & Busters, Regal Cinemas, Barnes & Noble, Jamba Juice, Sephora, American Eagle and Under Armour, there is something for every teen or tween. For Kayla I knew it would be Jamba Juice and Barnes & Noble.
To make things a little more magical, I added some little trinkets from Barnes & Noble. Sometimes I forget that they have SO much more than books. I found magical creature page clips, miniature plush characters and even chocolate frogs. I put these in a simple bento box purchased from an Asian dollar store along with some colorful shred and that was it.
I had a gift to make my tween incredibly happy. She can’t wait to go for smoothies after soccer practice next week and to pick out some new books over the weekend. Happy Cards® are available at Gift Card Mall displays nationwide and online here.
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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Happy Cards®
