Is It Weird to Regift Toys My Kids Don’t Want to My Ex’s Girlfriend’s Children?
By: Elle Silver
Tags: Parenting, Recycling, Relationships, Divorce, Family

Is It Weird to Regift Toys My Kids Don’t Want to My Ex’s Girlfriend’s Children?

Although it’s December, I’ve been doing some spring cleaning. In cleaning out my bedroom and my kids’ room, I’ve found a lot of toys that my boys don’t want. These toys are still in their packaging. Mostly these are gifts that my sons received for their birthdays from their friends. They opened the gift wrapping, took one look at the toys, and said nah.

Legos, Legos, and more Legos. That’s what the majority of these toys are. My sons’ friends’ moms probably stopped by Target on the way to the parties — just like I do — snagging a box of “Legos for boys” as a gift, not realizing that my sons have never been into Legos.

I’m not putting down the plastic bricks. They’re great for children’s imaginations. Legos are also quite expensive. However, my sons just don’t like them. Because of their low opinions of Legos, these unopened boxes have been sitting around my house for years, moldering in my closet and under my sons’ beds.

So in discovering all these Legos still in their original packaging during my recent cleaning spree, I got an idea: I could regift them to my ex-husband’s girlfriend’s children.

Her kids are younger than our kids, and I already regifted them toys my sons didn’t want a few months back. I had my ex-husband give his girlfriend’s children some Roblox-themed toys that he bought for our sons, which they didn’t like.

Again, my kids didn’t even open the boxes. Please don’t think my kids are so spoiled. They like videogames, but Roblox has also fallen into bad favor.

My ex regifted the toys to his girlfriend’s children — and guess what? They loved them!

So why not do it again? But then I started wondering: is this weird?

Is regifting tacky — especially when you do it to your ex-husband’s girlfriend’s kids?

Let’s face it — regifting is a little gauche. However, I also think about how much stuff we waste. Should I throw out the Legos and add more plastic to the landfill? Or should I just see if some other kids want my children’s unopened “throwaways”?

The kids I’ve chosen to enjoy these gifts just happen to be my ex’s girlfriend’s children. Is there anything wrong with regifting them toys my sons don’t want?

No.

And if I can show I’m past my divorce and able to maintain not only good relations with my sons’ father but with his new girlfriend too — then why not do everything in my power to do that? Not only has she had a good effect on my ex, making him happier — which is better for our children — but I feel like because he’s happier, I get along with him better as well.

I want to stay in good relations with his girlfriend. I want my ex and his lady to stay together! And her kids are just kids, like my own children, also growing up in a home where their parents don’t live together and now have new partners. At the very least, I can make life a little better for her kids, too.

I often belabor the point of just how important it is to continue to get along with your ex-spouse if you have children together. You can’t not maintain good relations with the other parent of your children. One way I’m trying to do this is by giving toys to my ex’s girlfriend’s kids.

These toys just happen to be regifted. There’s nothing wrong with that.