I think the best way to deal with him would be to take away all the things OP gave hi and say she got him nothing.

You should of taken all of his stuff away except the bare necessities. Leave him with just old clothes and shoes and nothing else.

It sucks when people - kids or otherwise - aren't grateful for the effort, time and (quite often) money you spend on them. As many people here have said, I think it might be an idea to take those gifts back to the shop. The fact that you included the price of the gun might mean that you don't have a lot of money to throw away, so it could be galling for you to take it to charity instead. The "lucky" element in the story is that your son's birthday is very close to Christmas, so you can use Christmas and its relationship to presents to show your son that a lot of children his age are lucky to even get a gift, be it for birthday or for Christmas. Maybe take him to a charity shop or to an organization which helps children in need so that he can see how lucky he is. I live in Mayotte, and children here often have no family. They are always hunting in the bins around where the rich people live for food and toys, and they stop you when you come out of the supermarket to ask you for a little money or a piece of bread. There are no such gifts here, there is no money for them. It might be worth explaining to your son that he is actually extremely privileged and should be happier with what he has got, otherwise he may find himself with little or nothing later in life.

I understand that molding a person's character is difficult... but it sounds to me like you are not doing a proper job... Instead of buying your child all that stuff, you should take the time to make him understand how poor and miserable some people around him are, and how bad it is to be greedy at such an early age. We fill kids' brains with so much information, yet rarely try to instill the appropriate morals and perception. Nothing is more annoying to me than a bratty, spoiled child.

Wow, that's really ungrateful. I'd be excited if my parents bought me that, even now! Nerf guns FTW!

Oh it's my birthday too c:

Ungrateful little bugger. I agree with what others have already said; take him to a homeless shelter or somewhere similar and make the point to him that he's lucky to have anything at all. I remember the kids at my high school being a bit like your son - they were incredibly spoiled and didn't know any different, so they used to laugh at me for not having Sky and branded clothes (I wasn't poor or anything, just not as well-off as them and had much less interest in materialistic shit). You need to teach him some morals now, before he ends up like them. FYL.

I guess its not just USA kids that are spoiled....smack the little brat!

Well, YOU raised him....