Dealing with 'fake' Christmas Presents
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Good one JD. I’ll do what I want thanks. I appreciate that you don’t get the excitement and knowledge that youtube can bring.
Yes, youtube videos – it’s on par with Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Blues Clues, Mary Poppins; its the modern day quality children’s programming.
Look – I’m an adult, I watch the shit out of youtube. But there’s a ton of content on there, and it ranges a whole gamut and a lot of it is crap. Watching kids unwrap presents is of no educational or moral value, it’s just teaching your kid to value stuff. I’m sure there are other things you could show her that would give her just as much excitement and joy that aren’t totally shallow.
So, as the parent, be the grown-up and be discerning about what you show your kid, you know?
I think this is a good learning experience for your daughter, that you need to facilitate. A child that age does not need to be judging the gifts they receive based on how cheap they are or not (and I mean cheap in the quality sense). I would have probably responded to her that her aunt cares about her a lot and wanted to get her a special gift, and that sometimes we buy things without knowing they are broken (or whatever). This is not a time to reinforce the idea that she should be expecting gifts of a certain quality or expense.
My mom purchased one of these L.O.L dolls for my niece and said she was extremely disappointed in the quality of the toy as much as it cost her. She also went on a rant about how toys are overpriced for not much toy or poor quality verse the quality when I was a kid. I agree with her. The best toy i came across was a 3.5ft plush shark for my 4yr old nephew (weve gone from dinos to sharks now) at TJ Max for $20. Amazing quality for that price.
Stick with fucking Lego. These LOL dolls look like utter garbage.
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PS — LW. Stop looking for reasons in life to be a real bitch. NEWSFLASH: I suspect you are already effortlessly doing so more often than not…
It makes me sad that you are teaching your four-year-old to be so materialistic. The trouble with materialism is that you can never have it all and it leaves people feeling like there is a hole in their life with whatever is missing. Please don’t do that to your daughter. Please don’t teach her to chase happiness in material things. You will be setting her up for a lifetime of unhappiness.
Every time she says she got a fake present you need to say it was a real present. A present is a gift that was given to you and the toy she received was a gift that was given to her. It might not be an actual Lol doll car but she is having fun playing with it so what difference does it make? Each time she says it is fake you need to say it is a real present and you are having fun with it aren’t you? Your aunt picked the right thing.
What you really want to do is have your daughter thank her aunt for the fake present because you want the satisfaction of having your daughter insult her aunt. Don’t put a child in the middle of a family feud. Good parents don’t do that. It is better for your daughter if she has a good relationship with this aunt.
I had to come back and add to my previous post because I’m feeling sad for your daughter. If you teach materialism as you are your daughter will be picking friends based on what they own but not on character. She will consider things more important than the person who owns them. Girls especially find middle school and high school difficult when their friends are all judging them and choosing them based on what they own. You daughter needs to make real friends. Friends who have similar interests that aren’t based on owning the most in things. She needs friends who value her for who she is. When she gets to Kindergarten in a year she needs to start making friends based on common interests and passions. She needs friends who will value her and stand by her because they are true friends not kids who like her as long as she owns all the right stuff and who would be willing to dump her if someone with better stuff comes along.
My daughter is 18 and is a senior in high school. She made her longest term friend when she was 4. They are still best friends but they have continued to add new friends to their group. They come from a range of incomes but every one of them is a quality friend. They don’t do drama so if someone tries to bring drama into the group that someone is out. Middle school and high school were easy years because the friends were good friends. The decisions you make now will determine whether your daughter spends her years surrounded by girls who are more frenemies who try to outdo each other with their consumer items or whether she has long term, solid, happy friendships. You will do your daughter a huge favor if you quit emphasizing things and start emphasizing character.
LW doesn’t need to parent. YouTube does it for her.
“Then we figured out we could park them in front of the TV. That’s how I was raised, and I turned out TV.” – Homer Simpson
Good one Ruby.
Oh, hang on, she’s reading the Chronicles of Narnia at 4 years old and is top of the class for reading at ages well above her.
And she has gone to parties each week for the last month. She is a clever girl and I was surprised but also pleased how she is able to notice things at such an early age.
Looks like your ploy to try and put someone else down hasn’t worked.
Kids aren’t ranked like that in pre school bud. So she isn’t beyond her “class” in anything. Keep baby Einstein away from the youtube or you’ll kill those special brain cells.
It doesn’t matter if she’s writing poetry and/or coding. Those unboxing videos are garbage that make kids materialistic and obsessed with acquiring shiny new junk that they’ll immediately cast aside and then crave more of. It’s really unhealthy.
