My 6-year-old doesn’t receive an allowance. However, she does earn stickers on an incentive chart, which can be traded in for small toys, books or other trinkets depending on the tasks completed. Expensive items are obtained on holidays and birthdays only.
Still, Santa and the Easter Bunny work on a budget, so when my daughter’s holiday wish lists include a dozen items that retail for 50 bucks apiece, then Mr. and Mrs. Claus have to do some serious number crunching and/or prepare the kid, who wants it all, for serious disappointment.
Currently, I am prepping for the latter since there is no way I plan to shell out nearly 60 bucks for a Littlest Pet Shop vet clinic/playhouse/hotel. I would have no problem justifying the price if I knew that my daughter would play the heck out of the Little Lovin’ plastic monstrosity. However, I am well-versed in the Mommy-I-neeeeed-this-colorful-chemically-enhanced- contraption-to-survive pleas, only to watch the synthetic plaything sit in the corner of the living room collecting dust after the first few days it makes its glorified debut.
So, up until earlier today I had my mind made up: No behemoth Littlest Pet Shop playset. Then, I got a call from my parents, who practically started convulsing when I told them that I put the kibosh on the Pet Shop play set. You’d think that I had denied my child a kidney the way they reacted.
Still, I stood firm. My parents already bought my daughter a brand-new bike for Christmas, plus a mountain of bicycle accessories, and they are paying for an upcoming trip to Hawaii for us. There’s no way I am allowing them to them to shell out even more cash, so my kid can have a three-story, pastel-colored hutch in which to store tiny bobble head figurines.
Interestingly, the individuals that I have shared this story with think I am making the wrong decision. They maintain that Christmas is designed specifically for giving into your kid’s desires. My BFF claims that if there is one day of the year to indulge your kid, it’s December 25th.
I’m not sure I buy into that philosophy given that, in my opinion, every day is Christmas for my kid. Okay, maybe not every day. Still, I can’t believe I am torn over a plastic pet playset.
Do you think that the celebration of a holiday is reason to reasonably give into your kid’s wants?