How much is too much?

Christmas shopping this year has proven to be quite the challenge!  I've asked my children repeatedly what they would like for Christmas this year.  My daughter sent me a detailed list of items that she wants, but there's only about 7 things on the list.  After splitting those 7 items between Santa, my parents, and my brother, there's not much on each of those lists.  My middle son picked out a skateboard that he liked, along with some extra wheels and bearings for his other skateboard.  He asked for some shoes and some clothes, but he hasn't asked for any other toys (he's only 9! Surely he hasn't outgrown toys!).  My seven year old has the largest list of the three.  I thought I was doing great with him, until he told me last night to "erase all the toys off the list and tell Santa that I want an XBOX 360, the white one, for my bedroom".  Ummm....I don't see that happening.  How to you tell a 7 year old that Santa doesn't do exchanges when it's barely the 1st of December??

My question is this:  When you have more than one child (heck, even if you just have one child), how do you decide how much to spend on gifts for Christmas?  I'm a firm believer that everything should be fair (same dollar amount on each child, or as close as you can possibly come), but that's kind of hard to explain when they are more likely to count the number of packages under the tree.  Trust me...these kids really do not NEED anything material.  They have plenty of toys...from the Wii, to the XBOX, to the DS3's...bicycles, (my boys have bikes at my house, dad's house, and grandma's house!).  They have tons of books, clothes, etc.  The oldest two both have an iPod touch (which they received for their most recent birthdays).  If anything, they have too much.

I don't want these kids to be disappointed at Christmas, but my mom made an interesting point when I talked to her about it.  She reminded me that Santa will be visiting them at their father's home and at my home, and they do have two sets of natural grandparents, a set of "step" grandparents, and plenty of aunts and uncles on all sides that will be showering them with gifts.

This has gotten me contemplating the idea of opening up an Education Savings Account (like a 529) and contributing to that for their birthdays and Christmas each year.  It seems that it would be going towards a good cause, but I'm not so sure that children would really appreciate it at the time.  Does anyone have any thoughts?

A must read for parents + a GIVEAWAY!

I recently received a copy of Recovering The Self: A Journal of Hope and Healing (Vol. III, No. 4) -- Focus on Parenting written by Holli Kenley. This journal is published monthly, and I was fortunate enough to be gifted the October issue which focuses on topics relevant to parenting. The issue is filled with a variety of articles, many which are inspiring.

As a parent myself, I found the personal stories in this issue particularly heartwarming. I could definitely relate to the memoir written by C. Saldana, In Love there is no Distance, Only Unity as another non-custodial mom. The messages in these articles can pertain to anyone that is a parent, whether their children are young or adults. Another article that I found to be especially pertinent in this day and age was Parenting a High-Tech Generation by Holli Kenley. Some of the ideas she wrote about to "unplug" ourselves in order to reconnect with our children and families make a lot of sense. In addition to the personal stories and the educational articles, there were some entertaining pieces as well. The piece by Mark Elswick titled Newborn to Dad: NO MultiTasking! was pretty funny and made me chuckle. It reminded me a little of my own husband.

There were several helpful articles that I thoroughly enjoyed reading throughout this issue. I will definitely be keeping up with this monthly journal at Recovering the Self and would recommend everyone to check it out and see for themselves! The publisher, Loving Healing Press has been kind enough to offer two free copies of the journal to my readers, in the winners choice of print or Kindle editions. Be sure to enter this giveaway below. There are NO mandatory entries!



I received a Kindle edition of this journal for the purpose of conducting this review. All the opinions expressed are my own and no monetary compensation has been received by me.