Monday, August 29, 2011

But all of the other kids have one

It has come to my attention that my children are becoming just a tad bit spoiled. When I was growing up we never would have expected something because other kids had it. We were lucky to have food on the table and clothes on our back. Our clothes were hand me downs or bought from Kmart. There was no American Eagle or Aero. We had a few good outfits and that was it. My children have so many clothes in there drawers that I can't even close them. Not that I want them to grow up poor or I'm not thankful for all the clothes that they have but I want them to be grateful for the things that they have not just expect things. Have you ever been to a child's birthday party and the kid rips into his gifts, tosses the card to the side and then throws the gift into a pile with the others? He doesn't stop to thank anybody, probably because he has no clue who it's from because he tossed the card. That's the vision that I get in my head when my kids pitch a fit about getting a new toy because someone else has one. I have to proudly say that my children are not that bad, but when my six year old wants to toss an entire Lego set because he's missing one piece and then in the same breath asks me for a different set... that gets to me. So after this has all brewed in my mind for a while I had this great idea. An awesome, spectacular, glorious idea.
  I thought that this Christmas instead of buying my children 6-7 gifts each, I would only buy them a couple and then have them choose gifts to donate to a family in need this year with the money that I saved. Then they would be thankful for the few gifts that they received and would get a great lesson in being giving. After all isn't that the end goal. Don't we want our children to be thankful and giving. I don't want my children growing up to always want something more or better. I don't want them to have bitter and selfish hearts. The cold hard truth is; life is tough. The world doesn't owe you a thing and maybe we should be preparing our children for it instead of trying to shield them from it. Just sayin!

With a thankful heart,
Teresa

1 comment:

  1. Preach it Sister Reed =) I agree 100% and my kids are horrible like this...and I (no doubt) am probably to blame for it. I think that is a great idea, and I have been going through my kids stuff now all summer, and we have been little bit little giving things away to kids that have much less than we do. Hoping to raise children that really see that "material things" are not what is important!!!

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