Give children experiences, not things.

principle — attributed to Charlie Palmer

Palmer's family practice across the last decade has been to give his four sons experiences instead of junk. Twin twenty-first birthdays were Barcelona and Madrid. No new computers, no new gadgets. The experiences will mean more in five or ten years when the sons say remember when we were in Madrid, remember that Picasso. The reframe extends Palmer's hospitality thinking into the family context. The dining experience inspires conversations about life; the travel experience does the same on a longer arc. Objects depreciate. Experiences compound across decades. The discipline applies to any parent or partner thinking about what to give.

For parents, partners, and anyone thinking about gift-giving. The principle is most useful as a frame against the default toward objects that depreciate.

experiences-over-things, family, barcelona-madrid, long-tail-value