Thursday, 21 November 2013

The gift of giving at Christmas.

My child has more toys than I care to imagine. More than he could ever play with and more than we can accommodate in our house.

He also has alot more coming from 'Santa' which means that our little house would be fit to bursting. He's a first child, grandchild and great grandchild so it's safe to say he's pretty spoiled . 

I'm a firm believer in a difference between being spoiled and spoilt. My son gets lots of treats. We both work hard and enjoy lavishing him with lovely things. What we don't want however is for him to be spoilt. To me, being spoilt is being a brat; expecting your own way, being defiant towards discipline and thinking you're deserving of everything. 

My son is only 15 months but I'm already conscious as to not let him display spoilt behaviour. I also want him to realise that he's very lucky in that he gets lots of treats as there are lots of other children who aren't so fortunate.

From my experience of being in the classroom, I know that alot of children think poverty and children with nothing only exist in foreign countries. Many think that you have to live overseas to be poor or to have no toys. 

Of course as adults, we know that this isn't the case. We live in a typically 'nice' area but probably a mile or less down the road, people will be living in completely different circumstances, many similar to those that we expect of overseas conditions. 

Women (and men) will be dealing with abuse and stress everyday so close to home and it's saddening to think that not everyone can afford to lavish gifts on their children especially at the festive period.

My child will get lots of toys. Too many for him to play with at once, silly amounts but he deserves every single one of them. But so do the others.

This Christmas, and Christmases to come, we are starting a tradition of sorting all Freddie's toys and donating them to children who are less fortunate than us. Although he doesn't understand this year, it is a vital lesson in ensuring he knows and appreciates how lucky he is and how he can help others. 

This year we are donating to our local women's refuge. Many of the women there have fled terrible violence and abuse and often don't have chance to take any belongings with them.

We donated all of Freddie's baby clothes to them and they are eternally greatful. I've spoken to quite a few of the ladies that work there and they are absolute angels doing a terrific job. So please, if like mine, you're child has more toys than they know what to do with; consider donating them to a women's refuge.

A simple Google search brought mine up with all the information that I needed to contact them. The toys don't have to be new, just safe & clean.

Thank you.

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