How Much Is Too Much?

Do you buy a lot of presents for your children at Christmas? How much is too much? Do you have a limit on how many presents your children receive? What message are we sending our kids by giving them way too many presents?

Truth be told, I'm struggling with these questions this Christmas.

Going in to Christmas I thought The Hubs and I had an understanding. I was wrong.

The plan was to get the Roller a few presents. Period. We don't want him to have the wrong idea about Christmas. It's not about the presents and material things. It's more about the birth of Jesus and giving to others. That's what we discussed. But somewhere between our discussion and a few days before Christmas, something changed.  Someone went a little overboard (and it wasn't me) and got Buddy Roller a lot of presents... a bike, a bow and arrow set, shields, and a Lego set...to name a few. That combined with gifts from family and friends equaled a lot more presents than we had planned for.

But I wasn't mad. How could I be? I know The Hubs loves his son, and he wants to shower him with presents. And the look on Roller's face was just priceless after opening each of his presents that he really loved. His faves, by far, were his bow and arrows and his new Lego Marvel Superheroes set. He has spent most of the day, so far, putting it all together. One thing's for sure...The Hubs really knows his son.

In the past when we had no control over how many presents Buddy Roller would get at his birthday party, for example, we would not let him open all the presents or we would re-gift some of them. Earlier today as he was opening some of the presents, I could tell it was excessive. And yes I know it's all relative...to some this would have been no big deal.

Some presents he opened and there was absolutely no reaction, and then it was like he was on auto-pilot and on to the next package. You know what I mean? I'm sure your kids have that reaction as well.  As the day comes to a close, I feel really fortunate that we are even able to give Buddy Roller a Christmas that he won't soon forget...at least for a few days.  I think as parents we want to give our kids the world, we want them to enjoy life, and we want them to have a childhood as good as we did, if not better. But at what cost? I'm sure a minimalist parent would just cringe at the sight of the obnoxious amount of presents some kids get. And maybe, just maybe, they have a point in the "less is more" way of life.

By the way, we had a lovely, casual low-key Christmas with my sister and brother-in-law.  They always make the holidays special.

Tomorrow The Rollers are hittin' the road! Our destination will be a first time experience for all three of us. I'm excited, and I cannot wait!