My Carter is the first grandchild on both sides of the family (and the only one that lives within a ten minute drive), so you can imagine what happens at Christmas and birthdays. Now I can't completely blame the grandparents- it's my husband's and my friends, aunts and uncles, the neighbors, etc. who all contribute to the craziness. But, the amount of stuff that ends up in his playroom the last week of December is seriously astonishing. There are literally toys from one end of my house to the other- (and that's after I took a Jeepload to consignment in preparation for what I knew was about to happen)!
Honestly, I am guilty too! Not as much of Carter overload, but definitely husband present overload! I get into my head that he works all year for us and that he should have everything he possibly could desire at Christmas. This translates into hundreds of dollars spent on things like remote control helicopters that are broken or forgotten by New Year's Eve.
The only issue I really have with this is how increasingly challenging it is to teach my child that Christmas is about baby Jesus and giving and helping when he is bombarded by presents for a week straight. Don't think I am not appreciative, because I always feel so blessed by the sheer number of people who love my baby enough to buy him a present at Christmas, but the hippy in me always comes out just a little. There are just kids all over this nation and all over the world who die from hunger or lack of a $3 vaccine. I mean, really, are stuffed Chica dolls and pirate ships more valuable than lives? I just can't wrap my head around it.
So, as I sit here planning a pirate birthday party and paying more for a cake than some families make in a year, my own words resonate with me. I guess it is built into me as an American, living in the greatest nation in the world, that I need bigger and better, regardless of what is most important. As devastating as it is knowing that things should be done differently, it's like I can't stop! As a mom in this country, there is such pressure to always have the best and the biggest for my kid. I also realize that I used to love to shop for me and my house, etc. and now wear sweat pants from Walmart everyday to make sure my child has underwear from Gymboree!
And don't get me wrong, I love my new cell phone, pajama pants and memory foam pillow, but gosh, couldn't I live without them to save a mother from losing her precious child? In the new year I will strive to be happy with less in order to show my little one what really matters. When praying daily for my child to become a man of God, I need to remember to also pray for my own heart to be calmed when this anxiety about giving him everything he could ever imagine creeps up!
