Any aunt or uncle understands the struggle of buying a birthday present for their nieces and nephews, and believe me, the struggle is real.

There is a lot of pressure to get the perfect gift. As an aunt/uncle, you have the responsibility of being fun. You’re not the parent, and you are not required to get them anything educational. It could simply be something they always wanted, but that their parents would never get them. However, figuring out what that something might be is a lot easier said than done. And you don’t want anyone to end up disappointed with your gift, do you?

If you don’t want to deal with this responsibility, you can always opt out by giving them money, but that is neither here nor there. It’s not memorable, it’s not fun, it’s more of a last resort, and no fun aunt or uncle should take that route.

As much as you want to buy the right thing, we all know kids are fickle, and even if you did everything right, they still might end up disappointed. So what do you do next?