Now I get its fun to shop for a baby girl. I get that its fun to have your first grandchild. I love that they wanted to spoil her.
I do however want to discuss their shopping habits before they get out to the mall this year. For one Baby Girl is an only child for the foreseeable future. I don't want her to be spoiled. I want her to appreciate the little things. To be honest at this point her favorite things to play with are not toys. She loves the mac & cheese box in her kitchen that I gave her from the recycling. She spends more time chasing the cat then the balls we have bought her. So she doesn't need toys.
I also want to be considerate to the fact that we live in a diverse area. We have HUD housing one direction and the "hill section" the other direction. Kids at school will have a diverse amount that they will receive from Santa. I want her to appreciate the magic of Christmas without the stuff and the potential for jealousy from her peers.
So I thought I'd do a little research to find out what the average parent spends on the holidays so I had some sort of benchmark as to what the limit should be. So the Today show had a survey for how much parents spent- $271! Last year we maybe spent $50 on Baby Girl. I think she had a perfectly fine Christmas. How much stuff does a kid need? She still gets excited about toys that resurface from the bottom of the toy bin- that says she has enough. Now do not get me wrong I'm sure I can pack a few toys away, give a few away, and make room for more age appropriate stuff- but there still should be a limit.
So now I'm not sure how to set the limit. I do not think "Santa" can bring more then a toy, a book, and an outfit per child. There are just too many children in this world. Grandma and Grandpa can give a few toys but isn't the point of the holidays about being together- not stuff. I feel like now is the time to set limits but am i being a scrooge or am I just old fashioned?
Home Study Check List:
Home Visit
Physician Report- Me
Finger Prints- Me
Finger Prints- DH
Profile Book
Well, since you asked...
ReplyDeletePersonally, I wouldn't set limits unless the gifts themselves are inappropriate. For example, if you don't do Barbie, or plastic toys, or electronic toys, then gift givers need to know that. If you'd like them to get specific items, if you don't already have an Amazon or similar wish list, now would be the time to set that up. "Stuff" doesn't have to be toys. I don't think a kid can ever have too many books, for example.
I'm coming from a place where, growing up, we didn't have much of quality. My mom was always for quantity over quality, so we had bunches of cheap stuff that always broke. So, really, we didn't have much. We weren't poor, but we were lower middle class. Our grandparents bought us all the best Christmas and birthday presents. That's where I'm coming from on this issue.
Max is an only child, so our kids are the only grandchildren, ever. I have no problem with them spoiling our kids. I think that's what grandparents are for. :)