The kids got way too much stuff – enough to make me feel that this was “wrong”. But I’m not sure what can be done to change it, as the vast majority wasn’t from us…… and I was mindful of a conversation with a friend about a relative trying to stop her from giving Christmas gifts to their kids….. that trying to stop other people from having a “gift-giving” relationship with your kids is perhaps not generous on your side….. that gift giving is about the giver not the receiver.
But in the meantime I wonder what message my kids are taking away from such a frenzy. My mum (bless her) realised what was going on and held back a number of things she’d bought…… and also the night before I decided not to give the books I’d bought – as they were great books and I didn’t want their impact to get lost in the chaos of the day.
Do you think it would be wrong to ask people to just give *one* thing? This is the stupidity of people having money, and loads of cheap Chinese goods. For example I think one kindly-intentioned relative gave the kids at least 10 items each (admittedly some were small – eg, pencils).
Over the past several days it’s been my job to make sense of this mountain of “stuff”….. and find a home for it amongst the rest. The upshot was on 27 December I freecycled a box of kids toys/games/puzzles. I didn’t think anyone would want them at this time of year. But the recipient then contacted me to say thanks, her kids were really enjoying them. It made me wonder….. next year I’m going to freecycle stuff *before* Christmas day.
But of course too much is never enough. We had to go to the shops yesterday and J had $20 of Christmas money burning a hole in his pocket and “wanted to buy a toy”. My distress at this announcement contorted my face. It required considerable self-talk to allow me to take him to the shops with any semblance of equanimity.
The other thing that happened of course was that so much of this stuff came in packaging. We have filled our recycling bin with crushed cardboard boxes. We have houseguests arriving today, and I am so ashamed of all the packaging, I’m trying to hide it under other recycled goods, and not tell them that in fact the bin truck came on Boxing Day, and this is just 3 days worth of “recycling”. Gee, our environmental credentials are so solid.
