Today’s Hint: Think Twice Before Paying to Personalize Kid Gear

To help transform our guest room into a nursery, earlier this year I ordered new kid bedding for the guest bed. I figured the new quilt and pillow shams would give the room a more kid-friendly feel and would be used in my son’s room for years to come. But unfortunately, I didn’t listen to my own advice, and I paid $9 for a pillow sham to be personalized with my son’s name.

Fast forward a couple months (the bedding was on back order), and the decorative pillow cover arrived bearing the name “Drake,” which is not my son’s name nor his nickname. In fact, it’s not even close to my son’s more traditional name. This is why today’s hint is a reminder to think twice before paying to personalize gear for your kids.

To be sure, there are situations when personalization makes sense, such as for baby gifts that will clearly only be used by one child (think pacifiers), or if your kids all have the same initials.

However, in general, not only is there the chance that you’ll eventually want to change the purpose of that cute little personalized chair or that personalized storage container, but you may end up getting gear with the wrong name, like I did, and returns of personalized items can be tricky.

In my case, I sent Drake’s pillow sham back to the company I bought it from, after chatting with an apologetic customer service manager (remember to always ask to speak to a manager if you find yourself in a similar situation). The folks there will be sending me an updated sham with the correct name later this month, once it’s ready.

In other words, getting a personalized pillow is ending up being a lot more trouble than it’s worth, and I should probably just have saved the $9 and bought a plain old pillow sham instead.

What are your tips related to personalizing kid gear?

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