blessmyendeavors

I understand parents wanting their children to have a good life.  What I get tired of hearing is how they want their children to have everything “they”..( the parents) didn’t have.   I have to wonder why.  As adults, we don’t get everything we want; why would you raise your children to think they will get everything they want?    Then , too, I have to wonder…do your children really want those things, or is it a need/ desire you are creating in them as you still harbor resentments over things you couldn’t have as a child without ever asking “why?”.
There are many good reasons for not overindulging children , just as there are many good reasons for not overindulging ourselves.  I always thought if we satisfy our needs first, and have a little left over to satisfy a “want”, we are doing well.  Let’s face it, we live in an age of blatant commercialism, and consumerism…and we have an off-shoot of gluttony that has led to casual disposal of many things that are still quite usable.  Teaching our children to not want every shiney package, not to beleive every overly commercialized  claim, is a greater gift than all the possessions their rooms could hold.   I’m not advocating miserly denial, I’m just suggesting a nice major gift, a few small things to amuse, and plans to teach the children economics throughout the year.

Its really a gift, to teach your children to live within a budget; to decide on something to work for,  and learn to strive to  get it.  Plus, they tend to appreciate it more.  The thing I see as the greatest problem though, are parents who haven’t learned these things themselves.  Its a problem that feeds on itself, each generation stepping farther and farther from the frugal years and fears handed down by parents and grandparents who suffered through the Great Depression.  We tread dangerously close to the edge of another one, and it is striking many people hard as they cannot even keep their homes, let alone think of extravagant christmas spending.   Its time to learn the old ways we left behind, the days when we learned the word ” no”, may not have been the tragedy our juvenile minds remembered.  Maybe, if we look back as adults, we might find our parents were on the right track.