Christmas presents

[ailbhe]

When I look at what other people are buying / have bought for their children, I feel like we're being really stingy and mean, but when I look at what we actually have bought for our children, I feel like they're getting a ton of stuff.

This would all be so much easier with actual rules.

Comments

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

I'm not actually sure there will be much of a Christmas here *at all* - but I don't think B will notice - he's got no friends here to compare with, and no build up to Christmas to excite him. It's probably the last year that this is possible. He doesn't seem to notice new *things* - rather he notices happy people, people who talk to him and people who play with him.

I'm terrified of being without money. And he seems to get a lot of enjoyment out of the things he has.

But I do feel slightly worried and guilty at being so careful with money that we get new toys so rarely.

[ailbhe]

We only ever got new toys at Christmas or when my aunt from America visited. We got new clothes and new underwear at Christmas too. The last year we were at home for it, a lot of my children's Christmas presents came from Freecycle.

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

I remember clothes being part of Birthday and Christmas presents when I was a child too - and it seems, through force of circumstances, that I am relearning how to live in the 70s - no TV on tap, hardly any toys, and learning what to do with yourself when you get bored. In my son's case, this means foraging for food. Because he has not eaten in an hour or so...

[ailbhe]

There are worse ways to live. The clothes were less gender-segregated back then too.