Starting a New Trend... Wishlisting

With Father's Day creeping up on us, in addition to graduations and countless summer birthdays, I have been thinking about the dreaded gift buying for said events. I am sure I am not alone in feeling like the fathers in my life are really tough to shop for. When scanning through the dozens of websites aimed at gift ideas, I am still left feeling hopeless. Not every man needs a new power tool, plays golf, or has any use for a new tie. Most gift ideas are completely lost on the men I need to shop for. Add to that, the men I know are self sufficient kind of guys; if they want something, they buy it for themselves. And never will I hear them say, "I really want this" in that hinting sort-of way much like women will do before every gift-giving holiday. So how do we shop for all those fathers in our lives ?

Worse than Father's Day, in my opinion, are those invites for your children to attend a fellow classmate's birthday party. Your son/daughter is invited to the birthday of a peer that they likely have barely spoken to despite the fact that they sat in the same classroom together for the past several months. You have no clue what kind of gift to buy and your child is no help because they don't even know enough about the birthday boy/girl to make a suggestion. And gift cards are a sketchy choice because you are putting an arbitrary value on a party invite that is likely costing the parents a pretty penny.

I have a simple solution that I feel could be adopted by all and hopefully one day become the norm in birthday and holiday traditions.

Wishlists.

Why should shopping for baby and wedding showers be the only occasions in which creating a gift registry is acceptable practice? Why shouldn't we take our finicky 7-8-9 year olds to Target, Toys 'R Us or Sears and allow him/her to do a fun day of imaginary shopping?

I remember making my baby shower gift registries at Target, and the excitement of taking that gun and just scanning my little heart out, it was almost as much fun as actually receiving the gifts. Why can't we extend this fun into other occasions as well?

Now I am sure a few people may think that including a wishlist in your child's invitation may be rude. Nay! I say. It is more thoughtful to save me the stress and frustration of trying to guess at what your child likes; which games/Bakugan/Barbie dolls they already have and which ones they still want.

I have been tempted in the past to slip a little gift suggestion list into my son's birthday invites. I didn't, out of fear the other parents may think I am being rude. The numerous phones calls I received with the RSVPs asking what he wanted only validated my hunch. People need to know what to buy.

So, let's start a movement. Everyone go to Wishlist.com, it's a great website in which you can create many wishlists for any occasion (or no occasion at all) and compile a list of desired gifts from all over the internet. You can add the "Wishlist Button" to your internet browser toolbar so anytime you see something you want, you just click the button (much like bookmarking a page) and your gift is saved to your wishlist. You can even link the website up to your Facebook or use a barcode scanner on your mobile phone to upload gift ideas while you are out shopping. Prices and links to the websites are included to simplify the buying process for those shopping for you. My favorite feature is the "Priority Wishmeter" in which you can rate the gift on a 5 point scale in terms of desire-ability. One last caveat, provide a wide range in gift prices. If everything on your wishlist is $50+, your gift ideas may be not be appreciated. 

I have made the suggestion...     now I hope the trend catches on like wildfire.