Bringing home gifts for the little ones good or bad idea?

HeavenSent

Active Member
First off i am not a parent...but this seemed like the best area to post this in.
Im leaving tomorrow to head off to school, so we had a family dinner tonight. I did not realize until tonight how hard it would be to explain to my neices (4 and 7years old) that auntie got a new job and she wont be able to come over and play with them as much any more.
I want to give all of you who have little ones at home my respect. It was hard enough saying goodbye to my neices i couldnt imagine if they were my own.

Anyways getting to the point. I want to bring them back a little something once every couple months when i see them. So i was thinking of starting a collection. My questions....
-is this just a bad idea in general?
-do truck stops typically sell small souvenier type stuff?
-any suggestions? (Was thinking keychains, magnets, mini spoons, bells, idk....maybe something simple like postcards)
Any an all ideas or advice is appriciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Every truck stop sells touristy crap.

But that will pretty much be the only places you can get into for buying tourist stuff.
 
It's fine so long as you're the cool aunt...
and respectful of your bro/sis concerning parental authority.

Different story if you have to maintain a united front with a spouse at home.
You can't have a healthy relationship if you have to come home and dispense discipline nor if you have to come home to be the arbitrator of grievances.

And as far as that goes you might even be able to help your sibling by overtly asking whether the little prinks darlings have been behaving themselves before bestowing gifts upon them.
:D
 
What's that one place. Is it Whites? It has the most awesome gift store with stuff you won't find anywhere else. It takes you like hours to look at everything. Just looked at it on Google. It's not Whites. Where am I thinking of? Any small child would give his right arm for most of the stuff in the place!!!
 
What's that one place. Is it Whites? It has the most awesome gift store with stuff you won't find anywhere else. It takes you like hours to look at everything. Just looked at it on Google. It's not Whites. Where am I thinking of? Any small child would give his right arm for most of the stuff in the place!!!
Well that was very insightful....thanks for the help ;) LOL
 
Ya, that's it. Johnsons Corner in Colorado. I remember they had a pic from a long time ago where two elephants were getting a drink.

elephant.jpg
 
What's that one place. Is it Whites? It has the most awesome gift store with stuff you won't find anywhere else. It takes you like hours to look at everything. Just looked at it on Google. It's not Whites. Where am I thinking of? Any small child would give his right arm for most of the stuff in the place!!!
Iowa 80 has tons of tourist crap too.

Hopi Travel Plaza. I-40 exit 292 in AZ. It's some kind of Indian owned truck stop (Navajo I think) & tourist trap with petrified wood and turquoise stuff.
 
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Whites is in Virginia.

The other in Colorado.

Way to go @Skateboard ya narrowed it right down.

I bring stuff home for the kids here and there. Always seems like it's appreciated.

One year I was basically home for major holidays and nothing else, and was flying home from different wind farms, so I bought my son a die cast sorta Matchbox car Air Force One plane.

He's going on 11, I did that when he was 5, and he still remembers it clearly.

I remember a little red stuffed animal my dad got me when I was about the same age...

Stuff like that is huge for kids.
 
US Interstate Wall Map by GeoNova

If your real close get them one of those or something like it. Then if you call on the weekends or whenever you can tell them where you are and they can use post it arrows to show it on their map. I used to do this with my daughters.


Crys collects bells so she has one from every state and a couple of countries.
 
First off i am not a parent...but this seemed like the best area to post this in.
Im leaving tomorrow to head off to school, so we had a family dinner tonight. I did not realize until tonight how hard it would be to explain to my neices (4 and 7years old) that auntie got a new job and she wont be able to come over and play with them as much any more.
I want to give all of you who have little ones at home my respect. It was hard enough saying goodbye to my neices i couldnt imagine if they were my own.

Anyways getting to the point. I want to bring them back a little something once every couple months when i see them. So i was thinking of starting a collection. My questions....
-is this just a bad idea in general?
-do truck stops typically sell small souvenier type stuff?
-any suggestions? (Was thinking keychains, magnets, mini spoons, bells, idk....maybe something simple like postcards)
Any an all ideas or advice is appriciated. Thanks in advance.
you could buy "state spoons, or thimbles, or glasses"...but what'll happen when you cannot complete the set.>???

my first year long haul, i never really got into buying anyone, anything. the souvenirs can be costly.

instead, what i'd do is, take home used paper clips from the bills of lading or other paper work i'd have.

kids are so happy to get anything, and if it's cheap, you're better off, then too, you simply cannot miss any state, paper clip....
 
I bring things home every now and then, not all the time so it's not "Daddy's home! whatcha get me?!". Big chain truck stops really don't have much "special" from place to place, so if you want something good then you'll have to hunt down mom and pop stops, or else stop somewhere neat while on the road.

Perfect example is how my daughter loves space stuff... well, one of my runs went through Nebraska, and one of the 3 pure drive days had me go past the Strategic Air Command museum (Property donated by the Sapp family, it's got more parking space with Semi radiused turns than your average truck stop). Internet recon by the wife said they were open and had food there, so hey, take my 30 and check the place out... ended up taking more along the lines of a 180 minute break as the place is huge, I didn't even go through half of it so there's new stuff whenever the family whole can check it out... The gift shop had a big near-poster high resolution print of an astronaut... picked that up for her, it's on the wall in her bedroom.

I don't really go out with the goal of getting something for anyone, but if something neat that fits happens to be around, I'll pick it up. I also take into account what all we did my last home time, and if I have any specific plans for the upcoming home time as to if trinkets are deserved for the tribe or not.
 
naval lint is cheap, and readily available. kids will clamor all over for a piece. or lint from the driers at the truck stop.
 
Check out state run rest areas/ tourist info stops for free brochures, etc on local history and such. That way they get to "track" you and maybe learn a few things about their country.

Touristy stuff at truck stops can get pretty "spendy" real quick and alot of it is mass-produced with only the state name changed.

You might also find this interesting...... Home
 
Little gifties on occasion, sure.. kids love that.
But you might also consider being a "trucker buddy" for their classes at school if it's something you're interested in. Trucker buddies are generally OTR drivers who go all over the country and send post cards from wherever they are and the teacher has classes about some of the places you go.

Check it out:
Home
 

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