CommuterMom: Better to Give Than to Receive
With winter birthday gifts and holiday presents, CommuterGirl seems to have an abundance of “things” this time of year. The article below, pulled from e-family news, has some good advice that CommuterDad and I plan to put into place.
To Give and To Get During the Holidays
I want my kids to have the best.
As parents, it’s just natural for us to want to give our children the things we had or didn’t have, and in a world of “more is better,” it’s easy to confuse the wants of our children with their actual needs. Often we respond to “I want” because we can and it makes us feel good, not necessarily because we should. During the holidays, many of us tend to throw moderation out the window because, let’s face it, giving abundantly to our kids makes us feel good.
There are an infinite number of toys and treats, goodies and games--just look at the daily newspaper and television ads. And no matter how much our children have, they will always want more, and there will always be friends who have more--“Mom, Dad...Emma and Erica have one. I neeeed one!” In our society, we have so much. How can we teach our children to moderate their wants, be thankful for what they have, and give to others?
- Even though you may be able to afford it, try not to get in the habit of buying your child something every time you go in a store, even if it is just gum or candy they want.
- When you are shopping and do allow your child to buy something, avoid giving your child too many choices. When you go to a store, try letting your child make a selection just from the book aisle or the arts and crafts area.
- Actively teach your children as they mature, that media advertising is trying to shape our thinking to want more and more.
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1 comments:
I try to avoid turning my children into consumers at every turn. You're right, we do have so much in our culture. Sometimes we have too much!
To keep my kids out of the toy aisle I keep them occupied with arts and crafts. Now, nearly every night of the week is arts and crafts night at our house. The place is kind of a mess, but we all have an absolute ball, the kids are learning and making all sorts of decorations for the house (and not tacky ones, either), and even the old man's blood pressure is down.
Lately my boys have been enamoured with something called Kabillion’s Little Director. It’s a kid-friendly online sketchbook you can find at http://www.kabillion.com/littledirector. All the tools are there for my boys to draw whatever’s in their imagination. And my husband and I are right there, creating with them! The pictures can even be taken a step further and turned into complete animations, with music, voiceovers and everything needed to tell a story!
You can even buy your child’s masterpiece on DVD. My boys’ latest cartoon will make a great Christmas gift for my parents. They’ll love it! I only know about this because I work with Kabillion, but I’m so happy to share this with my amazing children!
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