Not every gift is given out of the kindness of the giver’s heart. Sometimes, they give gifts to make the recipient feel bad about themselves, as if they weren’t deserving of a better gift. Many parents are not above giving one child an extravagant and expensive gift while giving their other child a gift that is so cheap and lacking in quality, it’s almost comical. This is intended to communicate to the child that they are not as valuable or important as their sibling without actually saying it out loud. 

A kid shouldn’t have to be grateful for a gift that gets taken away from them because of factors out of their control. If the kid is constantly misbehaving, that’s one thing. But if adults use gift-giving to control and manipulate children into liking them, turning against their parents, or feeling inferior to their siblings, that is totally unacceptable. Children are people who deserve to be respected. They might not have all of the rights and privileges as adults, but there should be a lot more stigma in being cruel to them.