I’m about to become an old geezer & I’m totally cool with that.
I had a talk with my best friend Melissa about social media & Xmas. I post a photo of my tree & the girls opening their gifts so their family out of town can see them. But the dollar value of their treasures is always kept mum. Why? Because I have a good job. I have been blessed with the ability to provide for my kids. That doesn’t mean everyone has that & I don’t want people to feel badly or inadequate. Kids don’t care, but Christmas is about the spirit of giving & love, not a pissing contest to see who spent the most. It’s actually the reason that I do not celebrate Valentine’s Day, as it’s the same thing (I will be this year, as I have a man who treats me like it’s Valentine’s Day all year, and he promised we’d go see Deadpool).
My best friend was frustrated because you can feel the economy gap when parents post photos of all the goodies. “They all got a laptop!” Even Kourtney Kardashian got into it, posting her kids’ Xmas haul. What about “my kid was sooooooo happy?” No, it’s about what a great mom you are for buying all of the stuff? Okay.
This drives me as nuts as those videos of the kids who freak out when they didn’t get the toy that they wanted, or worse, those horrible parents who put a gag gift in a box for something the child coveted to “teach them a lesson.” My heart broke when I saw a FB friend laughing at a viral video of a child being given a brick in a PS4 box, the child quietly sobbing while mom & dad laughed. Why would you use a holiday meant for family to hurt your child? If you don’t want to buy a console, just don’t! Buy a smaller, thoughtful gift. Don’t crush them for laughs.
As for the other kids, don’t put the video on YouTube, like the kid who berated his mother for buying him WWE 2K15, not 2K16. Apparently the game developer has reached out to the little shit to help him get his game. Personally, this kid needs discipline. Kids aren’t born as entitled little shits. They learn that from asshole parents. I felt for the mom as she defeatedly told her little shit that the game was out of stock, but then I remembered that she probably berates the retail employees (something my teen daughter learned NOT to do when I made her apologize to the Disney Store employee when she got lippy because the doll she had hoped to buy her stepsister for Xmas was out of stock), or she indulged him too much, which helped him learn how to be an entitled little shit.
I’m not a perfect mom, far from it. But I hope I’m teaching my girls humility & kindness and to be grateful when people do something nice for you. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll see my two youngest marking out with joy over their Brie & Nikki Bella Pop Vinyls. Everything they asked for this year was small, and my oldest daughter offered to tell her sisters that she was on Santa’s naughty list as the one pair of shoes that she wanted were pricier than the younger two’s two wish list items. But I was proud of them for wanting to give, not get. Sometimes they lose the plot, but that’s where parenting comes in. Parents who play mean pranks on their kids are bad parents, because they want the attention on them, not their adorable lil ones. Kids who are ungrateful shits get that way because parents turn a day for family into an annual can you top this.
Perhaps next year we can focus on what Christmas should be; a celebration of love & family. Focus on the joy you brought the kids, not the dollar amount of the gifts. Stop glorifying poor behaviour by laughing at entitled children screaming that they didn’t get an iPhone or a PS4. And stop playing mean jokes on your kids. Let the day be about love.
I’ll stop being an old fart now.
The Misadventures of MHC 