…besides porn, baseball, Harry Potter, and 13-year-old girls (when they’re not still “icky”), that is. I have to get a Hannukah gift for my half-brother, who lives in NY, so it’s hard to know a) what he has already, and b) what he likes. I’ve tried asking him, but he just says “I don’t care” (he’s in that weird pre-pubescent ennui stage).
Software and books on baseball are wearing thin…I need some fresh new ideas, preferably ones that are easy to mail! Bonus points if they’ll annoy the crap out of my stepmom.
I’m going with the tried and true mall gift certificate for all my hard-to-buy-for people. You can probably find out what mall is near his home and buy one on line or over the phone.
Are you anti-gift certificates? Because my 13-year-old nephew likes getting movie theatre gift certificates, but I know some people don’t like giving them.
If he’s a baseball fan with a particular team, how about a jersey or a hat? I’d say tickets, but it’s a little early for that, sadly. Or CDs?
The other benifit to tickets is that you send the boy two tickets and your maybe your dad gets to be the one to take him to the game. So dad kinda gets a gift too.
Ditto on the drum, or another loud musical instrument, if the true goal is to drive the parent insane. Just so long as you never have to be a caregiver for him.
Too bad you’ve ruled out porn. He’d stay quietly in his room for hours at a time,
If the budding internet had been what it is now in my personal 13-year-old “back then”, I would rate gift certificates to Amazon and similar very highly in the “good” category.
does he have any kind of video game system ? if he does , and he likes baseball , get him one of those baseball video or computer games. I khnow boys like that stuff.
Here’s wacky idea, available in toy stores. It’s great for working through that adolescent agressive energy, even if he never figures out the secret. Get him a couple of pairs of Sock-em Boppers ™ by Big Time™. They’re huge inflatable boxing glove-like things with a sleeve inside for the user’s hand. Each one is about the size of a volleyball, and kids can flail away at each other until they’re tired without really hurting each other.
If he’s a clever lad, he may figure out that, if he overinflates one and coats the inside with something slippery, he can slide something a bit smaller than his fist inside (nudge, nudge, wink, wink.)
Well, a pocket knife would be good and would possibly fall into the “annoy-the-stepmom” category, but even if you gave him something like the Leatherman micra, you’d probably come up against the local Jr. High zero tolerance policy, and you’d feel bad if one day the kid went to school with it and got busted. So I’d say something vaguely cool like an LED flashlight or maybe a cheap monocular.
