Well. It's over. We survived.
The kids actually seemed to have a great day - Sophie especially. She got THE gift she really really wanted and kept saying at random times, "best. Christmas. ever." So yay!
But I knew she would be happy - it's the older kids that I worried about the most. We really kept it simple (i.e. low cost) this year, so they didn't really get much. The biggest concern that I always have is when the kids start talking to their friends and playing the "what-did-you-get game". I just can't compete with the friends that live up on the mountain.
And one of my kids has this friend who is s-p-oiled!! The amount of things IN HIS STOCKING was bordering on the obscene.
When I was listening to the list of things this friend got last night, my heart sank. My stomach hurt. I wanted to cry for my kid. And after I got over that, I was plain, old MAD. I mean, how does that make my kids feel?? To have opened a basketball, crappy iPod speakers, and some cash (because $ is what they really wanted) - and have that be IT - yet his friend gets this obscene amount of toys??
Logically, my kids know that getting so much is not good for a person, but deep down, it's hard to see someone getting all of that. Especially when the ill effects of such spoiling don't always appear right away. It's hard for my kids to think that "well someday, I will be better off for having not been spoiled". ha, right! No kid thinks that far ahead - my kids hardly think 15 minutes ahead.
I talked to my kids last night. We decided that Christmas is NOT about what they get. And to reinforce that point, we will begin this year to make their own birthdays more of an event - where they do get a little more fuss made - and a little more money spent on them than we have been doing up to now. This will help them understand the point that we celebrate them and their wants/needs on their birthdays, and Christmas is more about the Savior and His birth.
So while I am still trying to get over feeling so badly about the contrast between my kids' Christmas and their friends', I am grateful that I have an opportunity to refocus and recommit to teaching my kids about values and what really matters.
This coming year is one that I plan to make some significant changes in my personal life, as well as in how my family works. I am so excited to see what 2012 brings for us!!!
{later this week, I will post pics and a little about the festivities that went on here... it was fun, I tell ya!}
*edited because my husband rightly pointed out that I should probably be a little less specific about the friend I referenced in this post - and really I do like this family a lot, and I hope that I did not offend.
The kids actually seemed to have a great day - Sophie especially. She got THE gift she really really wanted and kept saying at random times, "best. Christmas. ever." So yay!
But I knew she would be happy - it's the older kids that I worried about the most. We really kept it simple (i.e. low cost) this year, so they didn't really get much. The biggest concern that I always have is when the kids start talking to their friends and playing the "what-did-you-get game". I just can't compete with the friends that live up on the mountain.
And one of my kids has this friend who is s-p-oiled!! The amount of things IN HIS STOCKING was bordering on the obscene.
When I was listening to the list of things this friend got last night, my heart sank. My stomach hurt. I wanted to cry for my kid. And after I got over that, I was plain, old MAD. I mean, how does that make my kids feel?? To have opened a basketball, crappy iPod speakers, and some cash (because $ is what they really wanted) - and have that be IT - yet his friend gets this obscene amount of toys??
Logically, my kids know that getting so much is not good for a person, but deep down, it's hard to see someone getting all of that. Especially when the ill effects of such spoiling don't always appear right away. It's hard for my kids to think that "well someday, I will be better off for having not been spoiled". ha, right! No kid thinks that far ahead - my kids hardly think 15 minutes ahead.
I talked to my kids last night. We decided that Christmas is NOT about what they get. And to reinforce that point, we will begin this year to make their own birthdays more of an event - where they do get a little more fuss made - and a little more money spent on them than we have been doing up to now. This will help them understand the point that we celebrate them and their wants/needs on their birthdays, and Christmas is more about the Savior and His birth.
So while I am still trying to get over feeling so badly about the contrast between my kids' Christmas and their friends', I am grateful that I have an opportunity to refocus and recommit to teaching my kids about values and what really matters.
This coming year is one that I plan to make some significant changes in my personal life, as well as in how my family works. I am so excited to see what 2012 brings for us!!!
{later this week, I will post pics and a little about the festivities that went on here... it was fun, I tell ya!}
*edited because my husband rightly pointed out that I should probably be a little less specific about the friend I referenced in this post - and really I do like this family a lot, and I hope that I did not offend.
Comments
2012 will bring lots of great things for the LaMunyon family!