What a great Christmas our kids had this year! I am pretty sure that they do not realize how lucky they are, but we are doing our best to teach them to be appreciative of the things they have and to find joy in giving to others.
Obviously, we all try to reinforce this type of thinking in our children. Whether through conversation or example, our goal as parents is to not spoil the hell out of them. Actually, let me re-phrase...it seems that the trend in parenting as of late is to try to give our kids more than we had (aka spoil them) and then remind them that they are damn LUCKY! So, that's my plan.
Per my previous posts, I have been selling some of our unused stuff on Craigslist (double stroller, computer armoire, nursery furniture, etc). We have been earning a little money off of this, but not nearly as much as the 'stuff' has been worth. Although, not entirely charity I have been trying to explain to the kids that this is how we help others by giving them the things that we no longer use. This has helped to soften the blow as their things were wheeled out of our house by new owners 1-by-1. The last sale was one that I tried to do secretly, but timing wouldn't allow me to keep it discreet. Last year Olivia's big 'Santa' present was a 4 foot tall dollhouse. She used the thing maybe twice in 12 months. (One of the two times was the day she saw me dusting it to get it ready to post on Craigslist.) The day we came home from SeaWorld celebrating Olivia's birthday a family was scheduled to meet us at our house at 8PM to buy the dollhouse. I thought FOR SURE that she would be asleep and she would never notice that it was missing. Nope, that was not the case. She was wide awake and fiesty as ever from her fun day. As a result of her not following my plan, she was tortured slowly by watching me close the sale, take the money, and helping the new owners carry it out the front door. All the while she was screaming and crying about her gift from Santa last year. In her bed that night, we had a long talk about how happy the little girl would be that was receiving the dollhouse, and she was at peace with the sale. Wouldn't you know that she updated her Santa list the next morning with 'a bigger and better dollhouse than last year, so I will actually play with it.'
So much for learning the joy of giving at age 4!
Dylan on the other hand, I think is old enough to get it. He bought 3 presents at school in Santa's workshop for his Nana, sister, and brother. Each gift was $2 and hand selected. Nana received a coffee mug, Olivia a puppy dog stuffed animal, and Grayson a bright colored caterpillar. We had the gifts at the top of Dylan's closet for 2 weeks and wrapped them a few days before Christmas. Dylan was so excited to give his brother and sister their gifts that he asked Olivia to open her's about 5 minutes after it was wrapped. He was so proud of himself! He also did a great job of keeping his daddy's gift a secret for those same 3 days. My little man is getting so mature!
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