Tonight one of our boys informed us that he had one less present than his brother.
"do you really?" I inquired.
"yes" I was told.
I did the "good Mom" thing, talking to him about the meaning of Christmas and how it's better to give than to receive and ya da ya da. I even pointed out that of the bazilion gifts I've bough this year I only have ONE under the tree. (and sadly I know what they are, beaded earings Chase made me.) This talk didn't sink in.
I asked if he would rather us spend the same amount on each kid or give each kid the same amount of presents.
THE SAME AMOUNT OF PRESENTS!!! Of course.
Later this night as I was cleaning a mirror I started to plot. First on my to-do list, take away Billys presents under the tree. But until when? What should the proper dicipline be for this, that would instill the true meaning of Christmas while simultaniously not be forcefull and cause more contention.
I cleaned my mirror. I had some great ideas to make him earn them back, most of them went like this: Make him learn the true meaning of Christmas. Make him serve someone everyday till Christmas. Make him teach us a Family Home Evening on Christmas. Unfortunately forcing someone to understand the true meaning of Christmas might be counter productive. So I continued to clean the mirror. I said a silent prayer and thought some more.
This is what I came up with. I will have Billy read 5 Christmas stories in a book we own. Then he will chose his favorite one and read it to the family. THEN he can have his presents back. How can you not be touched by the Spirit when reading Christmas stories?
He'll have to be right?
Answers come when we clean mirrors. This is what I've learned so far from being a Mom.
Oh I'm so glad you came up with the answer. I never feel like there is a perfect answer, except what the parent comes up with. I never had the audacity to confront my parents for something like that. Maybe he needs to give some of his gifts away.
ReplyDeleteThat is such a great answer. That's a tough one, that's probably why we have no presents under our tree yet, too much scrutinizing by the kids! :)
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