Christmas week. A wonderful time of food, family get-togethers, church activities, and...”Christmas Lists”. Have you felt the pressure? The pressure to try and do everything possible to give our kids their hearts’ desire at Christmastime? We love our children. It seems a natural outpouring of our love to give our kids what they want for Christmas. But sometimes, they just do not need the newest, latest gadget. Or sometimes you can’t afford what they want.
Well, I am here to tell you that they will survive! Is that good news or what?? (I hope you hear the sarcasm in my voice as I write this!) I know you already know this. It just seemed like a good week to mention this in case you forgot…
A few months ago, one of my daughters desired a guinea pig with all of her heart. She spent HOURS researching guinea pig cages and guinea pig food and anything else that had to do with guinea pigs. She pestered me for about two weeks straight to let her have a guinea pig. We have owned rabbits, fish, cats, and birds at various times in our household during the last 20 years. We currently have two dogs. I do not feel the need to have more pets at this point in my life. But she would not leave me alone. She pleaded. She cried. She begged. I finally came up with what I thought was a pretty ingenious idea. I told this daughter that if she could keep her room clean for a whole month, we would re-visit the idea of the guinea pig. I had a pretty good idea that one of two things would happen. She would A) either forget about the guinea pig or B) grow tired of trying to keep her room clean.
And guess what? I was right on both counts. I haven’t heard anything further about a guinea pig for a long time. She made a decision that a guinea pig just wasn’t worth the work involved.
Sometimes our kids’ make it sound like they NEED to have the latest gadget…or that toy they saw on the commercial…or, in our case, the pet that their cousin has. And sometimes we can find ourselves believing them. But my little experiment showed me that, not only do they not need it, but that most kids will forget all about it eventually.
Isn’t parenting fun??