[Closed] £400 for a 10 year old Xmas pressie iPad 2 or lap top?

geordiemick00 - Member
Teamhurtmore:

I didn't take it as a personal attack, but i'll explain... The present is between me and the estranged ex, she's on £60K a year and I'm on £40k a year, so £200 each is fortunately affordable. We both had childhoods where we got sweet FA because she had tight fisted parents and mine were skint, so we both want our child to have nicer things in life now that we can afford to. I lost my job in august and have had to sell some bikes off to tide me through christmas but as pointed out by other nobody has questioned me in the last twelve months when I've spend £15k on mountain bikes...

she's extremely intelligent, very low maintenance and way ahead of her years and never expects stuff, she's willing to earn it and don't moan if she doesn't get. She's very adept on a pc/mac and looks after her personal belongings. The ex and her have two dogs and two horses, she handles them all, feeds them, trains them and takes her responsibilities seriously.

I have no issues with giving her an iPad as I know it will be fine, the reason for putting this post up was to merely find out if a lap top is a better alternative to an iPad. So far a dodgy Dell website that can't get me to the good deal offered and a Sony netbook sized lap top have been suggested but please feel free to carry on discussing what I came on here for...

mate don't even bother justifying your actions.

for what its worth a few friends kids had both laptops / notebooks / iPads for things like cbeebies websites etc, personally id get an iPad now and a good laptop in a couple of years

I wouldn't bother geordiemick, it's STW after all - take the helpful replies, ignore the vitriol. I'm with you all the way.

was to merely find out if a lap top is a better alternative to an iPad.

For the OP, we have an iPad and a lappie in the house and our kids, who are about the age of yours, seem to pick up the iPad rather than the lappie. I deliberately got an iPad rather than iPad2 as I didn't want young girls with webcams in their bedroom (the lappie is only allowed to be used in the main rooms - no bedrooms).

The other benefit of the iPad over the lappie is that it is less likely to get infected with malware as they follow the links that their friends send them.

Oh, and OpenDNS of course

Jeez - if you can afford it, then why not?!

I was in John Lewis at the weekend doing a bit of Christmas shopping & was quite impressed with some of the netbooks & what u can get for your money.

I'd take a look at a decent netbook as well as laptops.

How way Geordie, I wouldn't take much notice of it... From the recent 'how solvent are you?' thread, it's pretty clear some on here are a bit hard up at the moment.

It's against this and the fact that a lot are middle aged and therefore grew up in the 70's/early 80's when there just wasn't as much spare cash around and you can see where a lot of people's reference points are.

My own nephew (12) is getting an iPhone for Xmas (amongst other things) and I still can't believe it. How long before the 'bigger boys' take his £500 object of conspicuous consumption off him in the playground (assuming 'they' haven't sold off all the playgrounds yet)?

GM - again hope my comments were non misconstrued. Happy Christmas to you and your daughter. Recommendation would be ipad over laptop and ipad over ipad 2 - yes for the same reasons re webcam posted above.

I hope that you have found/find a new job soon - then have a little chat about spending 38% of gross income on two-wheeled fun things!!!

Christ, what is the fuss about. The guy can afford to, and wants to spend some money on his daughter. Just because you can't afford / won't spend that doesn't mean hes spoiling her. Get a life

Buy her an Ipad. much better product for a kid...

Laptop, the ipad might look nicer but there will come a time when she will be using windows products at school and home access will be very beneficial. If you buy the ipad, you would probably end up getting hassled for a laptop as well in the not too distant future.

ignore the vitriol

For what it is worth, I think that teaching children the value of money is more important than showering them with expensive presents. The sister of a good friend has two children of 12 and 14 and they get so much spent on them it is shocking - LCD tvs in each bedroom, PS3s each, identical games each (as they won't share the same game).

Last year one of them wanted an expensive high performance remote control car. My friend has such a remote control car and he asked the child if he wanted that one first, just to check that he would be okay with it before his mum spent £150> on one. The child said something along the lines of 'no, I want a new one'.

If he was my child he would have got nothing after that.

I don't think there is any vitriol, just surprise that people think spending £400 on fancy electronic gadgets is a reasonable budget for Christmas presents for a 10 yr old.

and how many of us on here 'tell porkies' about how much our bikes/bits cost as out other halves could probably start a similar thread thinking what we spend is unreasonable.

She knows the value of money and has been saving up herself for the last six months and has £200 saved up. She's asking us for money to put towards it, she's not expecting one and me being the Dad who wants her to do well will tell her to put her money in her savings account that she can't have til she's 21.

You have blatantly got me confused with your friends sister who seemingly 'showers her children with expensive gifts', I don't. She has what a lot of kids have these days, she has a decent £300 bike which she cleans weekly and doesn't leave out to rust and she has a blackberry which all of her mates have as it's a) a way of keeping in contact with me (who doesn't live with her) b) it was cheaper than topping up her PAYG phone and costs £10.50 a month, a relatively cheap way of keeping in contact with her friends and family.

Laptop, the ipad might look nicer but there will come a time when she will be using windows products at school and home access will be very beneficial. If you buy the ipad, you would probably end up getting hassled for a laptop as well in the not too distant future.

that was at the forefront of my mind as she's using excel now....

Fair enough Mick - from reading some of your posts it does seem your child is a level-headed child and good on her for that. I am not trying to be judgemental but I guess I was never the sort of child who could get expensive things nor do I really have the ability at the moment to spend that amount on my children and it just seemed an awful lot of money.

Wait for the Amazon Fire (will be much cheaper), or go for an Android based tablet - but if she's going to use it for homework etc, then I'd suggest a cheap laptop.

But have to agree that £400 for christmas is ridiculous.

Do what ever you want, you shouldn't need to justify to a bunch of strangers what you want to give your kid from Christmas, I'm sure she will be over the moon with an iPad.

But have to agree that £400 for christmas is ridiculous.

Of course it's not, plenty of people spend a lot more than that, plenty will spend a lot less, and so it goes.

Someone posts a picture of their new bike that costs the same as a small family car and will get used at way less that its capability once or twice a week max yet no one says anything. Expensive bikes in the classified in almost pristine condition (ridden twice or whatever) and no one says anything. Yet someone asks about a present that costs less than 10% the value of said bikes (and will be used much more) and there's uproar. 🙄

ianv - for me the argument is that an adult working for and spending money on themselves is far different than a child asking for expensive presents. A child should be taught the value of money and understand they have to work for things, not just ask and get.

I do think though, from what the OP has subsequently said, that his daughter is not a demanding child rather just in a fortunate position and does value what she is given. (Which is a far cry from the example I give above of someone I know).

age 10 .... internet from a computer set up in a family room

ipad will need laptop access to get music on it and to back it up and even update it to start with !

the two are not mutually exclusive

for educational purposes get a laptop because its whats used in the big bad world and its a life skill these days being able to operate a computer efficiently

ipad really is just an expensive toy it comes into its own when traveling for media consumption(why i got mine) - its not a productive tool

If OP said he was getting his kid a bike worth 400 that nobody would bat an eyelid

To the OP. Get him one for xmas and the other for his birthday. Not sure about the year after that though, but don't worry there will be a new iPad out by then.

Double what I would spend, but then I've got more kids and a humungous mortgage

I have considered the question of how much to spend on my kids.

I think that Christmas should not be a time for massively expensive presents. If my kids have a genuine requirement for a laptop, a decent bike, a musical instrument or whatever, I'll more than likely shell out. But not at Christmas. Otherwise I fear Christmas will be a time for demanding and expecting huge sums of money spent and not for enjoying the fun of it all. Big purchases should be outside the normal loop of gift buying. Like houses, cars, and bikes. My bikes were all bought with windfalls, if my kids had been around then they'd have got something too.

(nods head in agreement with Molgrips)

ipad will need laptop access to get music on it and to back it up and even update it to start with

iPad does not need a computer to back it up or update it since iOS 5 was released.

Also music can be purchased directly from the iTunes store without the need for a computer.
Of course if you want to rip CDs to put on it then you will need a computer.

plus games for the iPad are cheap.

As I child, I rarely got random presents throughout the year, and certainly nothing expensive. However, at Christmas, my parents would get my brother and I one 'big' gift each. We had a Spectrum 48k, a Commodore 64, an Amiga 500+ - all of which inspired a lifelong love of technology and gaming which ended up defining my future.

Get her a laptop so she can use Excel/Word/Powerpoint, etc. Also, get her Scratch and get her into programming. Then when she's a fabulously rich coder* she can start repaying her debt! 😛

* Not in the games industry - it's fun, it's creative, but bloody hell you earn more outside of it!

How about if you remove the [i]"for Christmas"[/i], and leave it as he is going to buy a laptop for his child to use, partly for her education, but she will also be allowed to use it for recreation and games.

If you flip it around this way, then it's really the same as asking [i]"what washing machine for the wife's Christmas"[/i]...

Nothing wrong with an iPad, but I'd get the laptop, be a lot more use for school projects and the like in the future. It's your money and your kid, go for it. I would.

if your going to quote me at least read the full quote instead of trying to be smart .....

We had two computers when I was a kid, not a the same time though. They were family computers though, not mine, even though it was mostly me using them. They were also in the spare room most of the time, my parents were very keen on them not ending up in my room. Neither was a Christmas present either.

I bet nobody would have batted an eyelid if you'd said you were spending £400 on a bike for your 10-year-old daughter.

You don't do yourself any favours implying that people are envious though. They're just grumpy really and some people prefer to keep quiet about their finances.

Here we go. page 3, time for the descent into squabbling...

This website is hilarious.

There seems to be an equal blend of threads about which trim level to opt for on an Audi A5 (or suchlike) and others where chippy little men seek to exorcise their own feelings of inadequacy by pontificating on how others should spend their money. Then the usual fauxletarians turn up to out do each other with stories, whether real or imagined of living in a shoebox in the middle of the road.

My advice?

1) Do whatever you think will make your kids happy
2) Ignore everything on this forum including this post

I'm viewing this from an ipad in comet!!!

she's at the age where all of her home work is still paper bassed, she loves apps and music and the ipad could sync with my mac for all that gubbins. I'm drwan to the ipad mainly because of the educational apps, games and no need to buy anti virus crap etc...

thanks to you all for a healthy debate!!

Ohh the same old same old.. "he should", "he shouldn't".

Get the girl what she likes, if you have the £'s then do it. But you need not do it just for Xmas.. Do it at any time of the year, Xmas is about spending time with your family and giving/sharing the LUV, that I feel is way more expensive to give, easy to recieve and she'll remember that for a very very very long time indeed.

iPad.

I bet nobody would have batted an eyelid if you'd said you were spending £400 on a bike for your 10-year-old daughter.

£400 for a 10 year old's bike would seem very expensive too!

I think, rereading this post that I was wrong. Like someone said, if the OP's daughter has a real need for a laptop to do her homework etc on, then £400 isn't a huge amount to spend. I think it's just the iPad is perceived as a luxury item IMO.

But I also agree with the above about maybe buying it outside of 'christmas', as it's easy to get into a cycle of trying to outdo the previous year.

Get a grip. Buying a kid an educational toy at xmas is bad?

My mate's 3 year old has an ipad and that wasn't a present.

£400 for a 10 year old's bike would seem very expensive too!

My 10 year old daughter loves her Isla Bikes Beinn 26, £349, she rides it for miles because it is light and works properly.

Get her a laptop so she can use Excel/Word/Powerpoint, etc

Oh yes I agree, get her trained up for a life of office based drudgery as early as possible 🙄

trouble with a laptop it is encourages poor posture using it.

If they don't need to move it around why not a desktop mac.

You can't really use a tablet for homework and other productive stuff, it is more email and mucking around, imho.

Oh yes I agree, get her trained up for a life of office based drudgery as early as possible

Haha, I guess most schools use those too though, no?

Alternatively, install Ubuntu, and tell her she can't use it until she configures her own wireless and audio drivers... 😛

geordiemick00 - Member
I'm viewing this from an ipad in comet!!!

she's at the age where all of her home work is still paper bassed, she loves apps and music and the ipad could sync with my mac for all that gubbins. I'm drwan to the ipad mainly because of the educational apps, games and no need to buy anti virus crap etc...

thanks to you all for a healthy debate!!

Have you decided, then?

Sounds like you are gonna get the iPad, and probably had that in mind all the time....? 🙂

I went against my better judgement and bought our daughter an Android tablet for her birthday, as she really wanted one. It hardly got used and had now been sold to go towards a laptop.

On the laptop theme, she wants a netbook, but I'm standing firm on this one and getting a laptop. Am I right in doing do, or would a netbook be fine. She not a gamer, but it will be used for schoolwork

On the laptop theme, she wants a netbook, but I'm standing firm on this one and getting a laptop. Am I right in doing do, or would a netbook be fine. She not a gamer, but it will be used for schoolwork

Laptop has more screen 'real estate' and can take more memory/bigger hard drives/faster processor. A compact 13" laptop should be a good compromise between performance and portability.

Might as well get her a 13" MacBook Pro to go with the iPad. 😛 😉

Sounds like you are gonna get the iPad, and probably had that in mind all the time....?

I bet he had already bought the iPad before starting the thread 😉

Laptop has more screen 'real estate'

Surely a 10 year old is going to have more fun with an ipad, a laptop may be needed in two or three years but by then whatever you get now will be history. I vote ipad.

More WHAT?

Bigger screen 🙄

This is a slightly different view.

I got an iPad half price through work and it's a "share" between me and my son (well, until I got a FREE iPad2 through work 😀 ).

Anyway, he used it a lot last couple of weeks (games and stuff) and has been getting really bad headaches. Had to come home from school one day and leave his sports club early another.

Not sure if a laptop will be any better, but limited use is probably a good idea.

My mistake, I thought it might have been somewhere to build a condo!
[img] http://www.smileys4me.com/getsmiley.php?show=2152 [/img]
*runs off looking for the business ****erspeak thread*

Well, a bigger screen doesn't always indicate more 'space' as it comes down to the resolution a screen can handle... the 11" Macbook Air has more 'space' than the 13" Macbook Pro, while being a physically smaller display.

If you think £400 is too much to spend on a 10 year old, then you could always go for a 40 year old Whisky, which Aldi are doing for £50. Should help them sleep well after the excitement of Christmas day.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/news/article-2064213/Aldi-sell-300-40-year-old-Glenbridge-Speyside-malt-whisky-50.html

Jesus, £400?! For a 10 year old?! Mind you, if it were for a learning device like a laptop then I kind of think that's fair, computers are invaluable tools.

I thought I was the luckiest kid alive when I got a bike frame and only had to buy the bits to build it myself.

Our 11 yr old will be having around £650 spent on her in total. So what, its a couple of days wages. It's all relative.

Our 11 yr old will be having around £650 spent on her in total. So what, its a couple of days wages. It's all relative.

Do you want to be my new dad?

In return I will mow the lawn once a month and possibly clean the car, but only if you give me the money up front.

What? No?

Oh your so unfair!

*storms out of thread and slams bedroom door*

each to their own but an ipad for a 10 year old is fekin ridiculous.

whats she having for her 18th, a house?

sorry just my view,

Dad of an 18month old girl, i have it all to come dont i!? 🙄

*storms out of thread and slams bedroom door*

Dad of an 18month old girl, i have it all to come dont i!?

What? People judging you for how you bring up your children?

[i]Approx 1987, Age 10, ZX Spectrum +3, $249, equivalent value now is $491
Approx 1990, Age 13, Commodore Amiga A500, approx $370, equivalent now $588[/i]

Tosh, where on earth did you get those comparisons from?

In 1987 I was earning about £7k pa, an equivilent role now would be £25 to £30k - so £250 is approximately £1000.

And £400 for 10 year-old, so what - its the posters' money to spend.

For comparison my youngest at 10 got a new Norco B-Line FS.

Our 11 yr old will be having around £650 spent on her in total. So what, its a couple of days wages. It's all relative.

Nice way to teach a child the value of money that, plus a bit of willy waving in one post.

Well done you.

whats she having for her 18th, a house?

I waited until my daughter was 20 before we bought her that - don't want to spoil her

Oh and back on topic...

Just bought a Lenovo x121e which is a great small laptop. HP Pavilion dm1 also is recommended - both £350

Why is everyone so concerned about how much other people spend on the people they love?

Half these posts scream of jealousy or hypocrisy.

If someone can afford something and wants to do it then so what?

As for the OP it depends what chord your trying to strike. If its more of a toy / entertainment then Ipad.
If you want it to be more for work / education then a laptop.

Laptop. More flexible.
Got my first PC when I was 9, top spec. Best thing ever.

What's money for, anyway? I live to love. Far better to spend money on something really useful for someone you love than to... well... not. <well thought out post of the week>

If you really want an iPad, buy one for the coffee table. Seems to be the fashion.

i'd go iPad myself for a 10year old will be perfect get games on it and learning ones too she gets FaceTime to speak to you or Skype if she gets the app its an apple product if you pay £400 for a laptop she won't have as much fun with it the iPad is a lot more portable and you don't have to pay for any antivirus soft wear etc besides a laptop in the car is a pain when traveling 🙂

You do realise that if you keep giving money to Apple they're going to build a Terminator, right?

I'd go for a laptop it is more versatile and use for things like school work. I also like Dell I've had a few over the years and by and large they've been excellent there are so many good deals around right now I'm sure you'll find something good.

As for the money aspect good on you, she sounds a sensible lass worth spoling a little!

@Scuzz thats why i am happy to keep giving money to apple cause when the terminator comes i can say oi back off i helped build you

The most valuable thing you can give your child is your time.

Far too many people don't and possessions, not matter how expensive, will never make up for that.

C_G
Mum of two adult kids who were not indulged

flow - Member

Our 11 yr old will be having around £650 spent on her in total. So what, its a couple of days wages. It's all relative.

[i]Nice way to teach a child the value of money that, plus a bit of willy waving in one post.

Well done you.[/i]

The most valuable thing you can give your child is your time.

Maybe the OP does but also has the financial means to treat them as well.

Got a netbook for my 10 year old, was rarly used (screen too small!).

Age 11 coming up 12 I was all for getting a proper laptop, more versitle, homework for 'big' school etc. But she never took the bait for laptop hints so went for an iPad V1 in the sales - reward for hard worrk being top of class at school.

The novelty wore off and there was a couple of months I didn't see it but a year later I find it is in a different place every day. Gets regular facebook, games, wikipedia use.

This year she needs MS Office and quiet time for homework and is now the one dropping hints about laptops.

save your cash and send her to my daughters school, every kid has just been given an ipad.

Half these posts scream of jealousy or hypocrisy.

And the other half whisper...oh so quietly...I'm loaded, I am. 🙂

Nice way to teach a child the value of money that, plus a bit of willy waving in one post. Well done you.

Yeah, intentionally antagonistic to wind up the likes of you, but there was a point to it.

The point being, its all relative - if I were a millionaire, then the amount would possibly be much more, if I earned £300 a week, it would no doubt be considerably less. I can't really understand some people setting limits based on their own expenditure and frothing at the mouth when anyone dares exceed that.

As for you initial comment, I've no idea what the amount I spend on my daughter at Christmas has got to do with teaching her the value of money. She's sold some of her other stuff to fund new stuff, she had to earn pocket money and understands she can't always have what she wants. The laptop is a neccessity and she knows she's getting it - Mrs STR will use it too. A tv for her bedroom is a surprise and the Mrs always likes to get her other stuff to make a nice pile under the tree. I used to get more off my grandparents than my parents, but that doesn't happen for our daughter.

Personally I think the 'value of money' is a load of old horseshit anyway. I had sod all as a child and saved diligently for anything I wanted. As soon as I had disposable income all that went out of the window anyway. Money's for spending anyway. Having tight parents never made me respect them any more.

If she has access to a laptop or desktop go for the iPad, if not go for the laptop this year and the iPad next. iPads no longer need to sync with a computer but you still need it to rip music and DVDs.
On the issue of how much to spend on kids at Christmas you should spend as much as possible. It's what the baby Jesus would want. And for teaching kids the value of money, start lending them money at a variable rate of interest.

I don't have kids. If I did, and I could afford to, I would spend as much as I wanted to on gifts for them. Similar background to OP for me, and I can't see why people have a problem with it other than through envy.
I'd go for a netbook, something like an Acer Aspire for a couple of hundred, will do pretty much everything I'd imagine a 10 year old will want to do and its smaller size will probably be easier for her to maniputalt.

my 4 year old would love a pair of fox 36, s=which she can keep on my bike and the 1 year old younger brother will love the box.

Similar background to OP for me, and I can't see why people have a problem with it

Entitlement. Have you ever heard of the idea of 'spoiling' a child?

I'd go for the laptop - schools are using pc based systems still.

Ring her school to find out.

But get a light one for her to carry around.

Insure it.

Have you ever heard of the idea of 'spoiling' a child?

I always recall as a little kid - when we were sledging on old fertiliser bags filled with snow, or on the old sledge that my dad's dad made for him when he was a child - my best friend would appear on a proper skidoo type sit on sledge with steering and everything. He got a new bike every year. He always got many more presents than anyone else.

Even though he grew up to hate his parents (when he was a teenager) and treated them like doormats, got into trouble with the police, treated girlfriends like playthings, his dad set him up with a business which he failed with.

Fortunately in later life he is redeeming himself and now has a lovely family, but for all the things he was given by his parents it never seemed to matter to him.

For me - yes I got into some minor troubles as a kid but always loved my mum and dad deeply, was always proud to be with them, always rang them up during the week and went round regularly for Sunday dinners. I also count my younger brother as my best friend (which again I think is a testament to how I was brought up).

I have no idea if that is simply the inherent difference between me and my old school friend or the way in which I was brought up and taught to appreciate the things I had and to respect people around me.

When I grow up I want to be just like mastiles 😀

Why is everyone so concerned about how much other people spend on the people they love?

Half these posts scream of jealousy or hypocrisy.

^^^^^^So much this

Laptop, 10yo's will be doing the social media thing and keyboards>>>>>screens