I'm not sure exactly what set it off, but Caedmon Wood has come down with a bad case of the "gimmies".
I suppose it's pretty normal for kids, especially kids this age. But it is oh so exhausting to have a child constantly asking for things, even if he does preface every request with "...for my birthday" (which is in September).
The other day I made him sit down and write a birthday list. This is what he came up with:
For those of you who are not fluent in "4-year old", this is what the list says:
- Star Wars legos
- light sabers
- kitchen with food
- dry erase markers
- super hero toys
- robot costume
- Robin costume
- Ironman costume
Since that point we could have filled up a whole journal with all of his additional requests. So, Andy had a good talk with him last night about
contentment and
gratitude. Today, every time he has asked me for something new, I have asked him to tell me two things that he currently has for which he is thankful. Although I'm not sure that the number of requests has slowed down, at least the gratitude has sped up.
Do any parents out there have additional suggestions for how to fight off the gimmies when they attack your home?
1 comment:
Here are some guidelines we have for our family. Zero tolerance for "wants". While I don't want to give you the image that we don't allow our kids to have "wants" and things they desire for themselves. We feel at this age it instills materialism and keeping up with the "Jones". We eliminate the term "i want" at home. If I hear Zerrin say, " I want that car" I would say, "Oh, Zerrin is that how we talk?" He will correct himself and say, "May I have that car, please." If the scenario is at home and he just was in general asking for his toy, the then would be given the car.If the same scenario was at a store, I would give him a reminder, "Zerrin, do we say, "I want?" He would simply say "No." and no car would be given.
We train the philosophy of in general not asking for things, and when toys or unexpected items come their way...that they are every so grateful. In conjunction with eliminating "i wants" we keep a leather bound journal on the dinner table. Each night we take turns telling the one thing we are thankful for that day. Nothing formal it only takes a minute, and I just jot them down after prayers. We don't get to it EVERY night, but its a common thing. Zerrin often is pretty good about reminding me.
I know your boys value the things they have. You are an excellent teacher of moral. Just putting this out there that this is functional for us.
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