<p>OK sooo… How many of you tell your kids that you can’t “afford” something even tho your “wallet” says that you can? (I’m not opposed to such since kids ask for too many things all the time, I’m just asking…)</p>
<p>When I was growing up, Santa paper had Santa on it; parent paper didn’t. So I continued that. Santa always wrapped his gifts, because this mom wanted the ooh-ahs to be prolonged.</p>
<p>On Santa…for years my oldest brother called our 2 DDs in early Dec and let them know he was watching to see if they’d been good little girls or not. Worked every year. And our gifts from Santa always had his picture on the paper except for 1 which was always left by their bedroom unwrapped so they could play with it and check out their stockings until family gathered to watch them open gifts. The tag on the unwrapped gift had Santa on it though.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>well, youngest S was just asking for something (video game for X box…what are they, $50 :eek: ) and I told him it costs too much/can’t afford it/whatever. But then he probably wonders how I can afford Starbucks all the time :o </p>
<p>busted!</p>
<p>That’s my take on it.</p>
<p>My kids figured out the no-santa thing early…we were going through the toys, and buying toys to give the Fire Department Toys for Tots Drive…they wondered why, if those kids were good, why Santa didn’t bring them presents…</p>
<p>Well, at the time, I said, well, parents bring lots of presents too, and some parents can’t, so we help them out…well, then why does Santa give them the presents at the party, well, sometimes that happens, and sometimes the presents go to the parents ot give the kids, well, how come the parents can’t get them all the presents…well, sometimes the parents don’t have enough money…welll, why?</p>
<p>this from my 4 year old, with the 2 yo listening to every word…needless to say, they would “get it”, not wanting to wreck it for mom, dad. me, sis, the both went aling with Santa for a few more years (oh yeah, or to mess it up for themselves)</p>
<p>smart little buggers
oh, yeah, and when the oldest was 5, dad went on the roof to (flat) to sound like the reindeer, and slipped on the gravel…next morning, girls asked why santa cussed…sigh</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>…until CallerID came along, I take it. :)</p>
<p>My mantra about spending: “When you earn the money, you can choose how to spend it.”</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you can’t afford it or not, it matters that it’s not your kids’ choice; you’e the grownup!</p>
<p>Not me - I always (and still) say “sure I/we can buy that, but, to what end? It’s better if we leverage the resource to buy (fill in the blank) instead” or “that isn’t a good value - it’s poorly made/no nutritional value/bad consumer reports” or “it took me X hours to earn this money and buying the widget is not a good use of our resources”…and so on.</p>
<p>It probably doesn’t matter though as D isn’t exactly the greatest money manager. In hindsight, I probably should have lied. But then again, those very rare times when I do say “we cannot afford it”, she knows with certainty that the issue truly is beyond my means.</p>
<p>When they would ask for a pony, it was Sure, when mine asked for that $100 barbie it was Sure, when they asked for the motorized kiddie car, it was sure…they soon realized I was not getting them the above, and would start asking for the most outrageous things…it was our little joke</p>
<p>sometimes, they would be in a car with friends, and go Mommy, can I have a pink Pony with a silver saddle, and I am like sure…their friends eyes would glaze over, and my Ds would go, oh, she doesn’t get us that stuff, we just like asking and she likes messing with us…</p>
<p>I didn’t perpetuate the myth of Santa with my kids once they figured it out on their own and started asking questions, but my 10 yr. old daughter has friends who’re going to get their periods before they stop believing in Santa, because the PARENTS so want them to believe. Some of the parents say things like, “if you don’t believe, Santa won’t come at all” and things like that which I think are ridiculous. Maybe I’m weird, because at 5 I thought the whole Santa thing sounded implausible. I asked my father and he gave me a good answer," Santa is the spirit of Christmas". That was good enough for me…</p>
<p>It may be the parents in some cases, dke, but I promise you, I had to throw some pretty broad hints around in order to finally get past the believing stage.</p>
<p>You are going to think that I am a little crazy, but I still believe in Santa Clause (a la the thoughts from Francis P. Church, 1897):
</p>
<p>The reason I believe in Santa is that on that night when children believe, there is magic in the air - real magic that cannot be denied. I’m trying not to be hokey, but I believe…</p>
<p>When I stopped believing (probably later than most kids), some of the magic of Chrismas disappeared. But later, with kids of my own, the magic returned, and like I said above, that magic was real. So now I’m a permanent believer.</p>
<p>It can be a right of passage when kids figure there is not Santa, and in a way, pretend they still do to fool mom and dad for fooling them…</p>
<p>My oldest kept up the ruse for the younger d, even though the younger D, who had SOOOO many questions, already knew</p>
<p>Well, if you don’t have a chimney, what happens, why are there SOOO many Santa’s, why are you shopping AGAIN, hey, i saw that toy at the store, once they went into toys are us and saw all the toys, they knew, but kept it up</p>
<p>They still to this day though, cannot figure out where I hid the presents…</p>
<p>My little secret</p>
<p>On more fib we told our Ds, that their were fairies in our local park…they LOVED fairies and elves, and imps (being wee irish girls)</p>