Who is this kid and where did mine go?
As much as I enjoy the holidays, I’m always glad when it’s over. Especially this year.
Something terrible happened between last Christmas and yesterday – someone abducted my son and replaced him with a selfish little twit who hasn’t got a clue what Christmas is really about.
On a cold and wet Sunday morning, when my kids were 6-years-old, we found money laying on the ground near one of those island style ATM machines. Knowing there was no possible way to track the actual owner, the next option we had was to spend the money on items for others and to pay it forward in a way that wasn’t for us.
I’m thinking it’s time for a similar lesson. In fact, I believe it’s going to become a year long lesson. I’ve got a few ideas on what we can do as a family project, throughout the year that will make certain my kids never lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas and just how special a giving heart can feel compared to a selfish one.
While my darling son got everything he asked for, it seemed it wasn’t enough. He wanted to know what other Christmas plans we had? Who else he has to see that may have gotten him a gift?
I literally wanted to smack the selfish right out of him.
Anyone else been there?
Maybe you SHOULD smack the selfish right out of him.
Make him give some of his precious stuff to the poor kids.
I make my kids give stuff to the poor kids – and take them to SEE the poor kids Before Christmas so they’ll be more grateful. Some of those kids don’t have parents or houses to live in and it’s good for kids to know that.
Ainsley did remark that Santa didn’t give her “wings that could really fly” or “a tree house” or a “real puppy that’s already trained.” But, it’s still the best Christmas Ever, she said.
Maybe next year, I told her.
We haven’t been there, but we’ve been in the neighbourhood.
My refrain, for most of the year is “you don’t need that, do you?” and it does inspire thought most of the time.
One of my children struggles with major selfishness and it’s something we’ve really been working on with him. We “adopted” 2 kids this year to buy presents for and had our kids come with us to help pick them out and buy them. We explained why we were doing this.
It was good to see them get excited for kids who have so little. I only wish they could have seen them open them. That would have been awesome.