My Children Are Spoiled

It's my own fault really.  And I think partial blame can be put on the grandparents.

Today I started working on Luie's birthday gift.  Which would be fine, except her birthday is in October.  Did I mention I also have her Christmas gift halfway done?  Please don't judge me.
It's not that I am making her gifts.  Although I'm beginning to question whether it's worth it or not, since I've split open my thumb, burnt the other thumb to smithereens, and have glue all over my clothes and face.

It's just the simple thought of giving her and Milo gifts to begin with.

Don't get me wrong, I love giving my children things.  But these things are overtaking our house and their attitudes.  Milo feels entitled to a jaunt down the toy aisle every time we go to Target.  No, he doesn't always get something, in case you were wondering.  He also has been telling me things like, "I want that for my birthday" or "Santa can bring me that for Christmas".  Really?  You're three- how do you even remember that?

I remember for one of my birthdays Mom and Dad bought me a Precious Moments sleeping bag.  Another birthday I got a clock (really, Mom and Dad?).  I remember talking with Grandma who had come over to help me celebrate.  The gifts were on the table and I said to her, "I shook this one.  I think it's a tea set, which is what I really want."  Imagine my surprise when I quickly learned my parents just wanted me to learn to tell time, rather than have fun.  But they did totally redeemed themselves when they bought me a bull horn for my 16th birthday.

The point is- my birthday presents kind of blew.  Sorry, if that hurts your feelings Mom and Dad, but that's the truth.  However, the birthday itself was always a blast.  Mom made tacos (because I always picked tacos for my birthday dinner) and we had homemade cake afterwards.  No parties, no hour-long gift opening sessions.  And I was happy.  So why do I assume that my children will only be smiling if the have a mountain in presents?

We had already discussed following the rule of "one thing you want, one thing you need, one thing to wear, one thing to read" for Christmas.  And I'm excited to see us miserably fail at that.  Nothing makes me more happy to buy things.  It's a sickness really, and Justin does his best to hold me back.  But I'm surprising strong and can sit on him until he suddenly finds himself agreeing with me.

But what about the "just because" gifts?  Because they happen more than I'd like to admit.  Recently while ignoring my children and playing on pinterest, I saw a quote that made me stop and think.

It went something like, "If you want your children to turn out well, spend half the money on them and twice the time."

Well played, internets.  Well played.

So as it stands, I just want to remind myself to show my children my love with hugs and kisses and quality time, and not just toys.  But pretty much I'm already a hypocrite because as I'm writing Milo is asking me to play karate penguins, whatever that is.  Gosh, Milo- can't you see I'm busy?  Go take your hundreds of dollars worth of toys collected over the last four years and leave me alone.  

But I'm not going to stop building Lu's gift.  For one, it's too awesome to not do.  And for another, there's nothing wrong with giving the one's you care for  a tangible reminder of your love.  Which is another reason why I'm a firm believer in hand made gifts.  So get ready family, everyone is getting friendship bracelets for Christmas!  Oh, you think I'm kidding?  We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?