Dear Julie,
Thank you so much for reaching out to us here at the Disney Parks Moms Panel with your great question about planning ahead for your family's upcoming
Walt Disney World Resort vacation!
This is SUCH a great question, and also is such a personal one for your family, since every family has a different budget and different values, interests, and needs. For my kids, we always give them each one $50
Disney gift card for the week, and they can use that to buy a shirt, a toy, or another few small trinkets. Typically, we plan ahead and we say that (of course) we will pay for meals, and one extra sweet treat per day. If, for example, after their sweet treat of the day they want to buy a bag of gummies as a souvenir to take home, that would come out of their souvenir money. Our feeling in our family is that the trip itself is the gift, and anything "extra" on top of that is just really lucky for them.
Other families handle it differently, for example giving their child a fixed amount each day to spend. This works better for the child who likes lots of small items and isn't "saving" for something larger. Other families give no specific amount at all, but I don't recommend this because in my opinion then it is a constant parenting battle over what constitutes an appropriate gift, you know? I'm not interested in those arguments while I'm on vacation, so I prefer the "fixed amount" method. There are a lot of opinions about this on external sites, also, so you might want to search around a bit to settle on an amount and a plan that works for your family!
No matter what you decide, your family will have a magical time!
- Jan K.