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As long as your child is loved 100% there is no reason for you to worry about the material things. We all love to give our children the finer things in life but sometimes that is simply not possible. Make sure to spend his birthday doing the things he loves, such as watching a favourite DVD with some popcorn and treats, inviting some close friends and family over and generally making a fuss of him.

Children only know what you teach them and if they are constantly spoiled with gifts etc then yes they will expect more and more, but if you teach them that love and respect means more, they will learn to expect nothing more.

Good Luck, I'm sure he'll have a fantastic birthday! x

You will be amazed how happy your son will be with anything which comes in wrapping paper. It makes any gift seem special. A wee trick to help you along, is to put more than one layer of paper on the gift with a small sweet treat in every layer. He will have great fun opening the gift, each layer will be a surprise for him with the "big prize" at the end. Jings, four sweets and four sheets of wrapping paper, must surely be worth it. Remember that he will also be getting gifts from your family. Enjoy his birthday, I'm sure that he will...

Firstly whether on not Steve's intentions are good..NEVER give your personal details on this site to another!!

I have had birthdays like that in the past with my ones. I looked in the sales, online and in the shops. Managed to get 5/6 presents for the grand total of £20 and he was delighted.

Don't feel bad hun, everyone is suffering times like this and he is still young and the fact that he's opening gifts on his birthday will be far more important to him, then what the price was.

Hope he has a good day hun xx

Okay he is five years old it is highly likely that he will not remember what you give him. Okay listen i know this woman and she doesn't have A lot of money and all she got her daughter was 2 old playstation games she didn't give her a cake, party, nothing so she brought her over my house and i made her homemade pizza cranked up the Stereo and had the local kids come over she had a blast and she loved it so just trying will be fine. It is not always the money or the gift that matter and you can always make it up to him. later

Hi there. Yea brothers and sisters demand their money back, mums however let u off the hook sometimes! it was mean of ur brother to take it out on the children, they don't understand! he should at least get them something cheap, or ask u to buy presents for them and put his name on it. I know that family suck. But their the only family you have, when u pay him back the money, tell him u never wana borrow any from him again. But also remember that he did u a favour when he lent u the money so he cant be that bad.

yes ,it's fine, maybe you can get him some books or a dvd (go to charity shops there are cheap ones) and try to make it a special day, take him to the park or if you can the cinema,i know it is hard to be a single mum, my son's birthday is only 2 weeks after christmas and by that time i'm always money tight.

i 'm sure your son will be happy

Of course, it'll be ok, he's still small enough, I think, that he won't realize. Just wrap it up really nice, maybe do the box within a box thing to make the unwrapping something special. These are all tricks I used when my son was small to make things nicer for him when money was tight.

Yes, that is completely fine. Birthdays should be taught that it is not just about the toys, it's about celebrating your birth. And maybe if he questions why he didn't get that much, you can take that time to explain that to him.

Or after wards maybe you two could go to the park and play soccer or basketball together, or go out to get a cheap ice cream cone or something :].

Hi Claire try not to worry of course what you have brought him he will love as it was brought with love and something you know he likes and wants.

One of mine even now as an adult loves loads of pressies to open even if they are all from the pound shop honest to god true. I buy her a main pressie but buy about ten things from the pound shop to open and she loves them more than bigger pressie.

So yes what you brought him is ok money is hard for everyone and to be honest it is not what you buy it is what is put into the day your time.

Make it something to remember in another way. Organise games, entertainment and all sorts of silliness for his birthday. Make it a fancy dress party and let him build his own costume out of brick-a-brac, tat and recycled second hand stuff. Be creative and do something on the cheap.