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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Here's a general tip for parents, not word related, but sanity related.
Your child did not get the thing he/she REALLY wanted, despite your best effort?
Tell him/her that perhaps the Three Kings will bring it ... this gives you time to run out and find the item and if lucky even get it on sale!
Remember the 12 Days of Christmas begin Dec 25 and run through January 6th, the day thought to be the day the Three Kings brought their gifts to the Child.
We always made it a special dinner that evening, the table nicely done up and a cake for dessert with the present from the Three Kings to follow.
Hope this cheers some children and helps some distraught parents!
Wow
P.S. Anyone else have similar traditions? Now that you are all back at your places of work (note I didn't say "back to work" implying actual work being accomplished) time to start posting once again
Happy Christmastide
WOW
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ann:
One of the things I remember from when I was a kid was our fire department's annual 12th night celebration. All the families in the community would bring their dried-out Christmas trees and we'd pile 'em up in the field beside the station house and torch them.
The Ladies Auxiliary (this was back in the days before the men-only hierarchy of the FD would even think of admitting women to membership) would serve hot chocolate, cookies, etc., and the men would clandestinely pass a bottle around. The last year I was there for it we had over a thousand trees. That makes a HELL of a fire.
Now, of course, it's illegal to burn a pile of leaves.
TEd
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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...a HELL of a fire.
Quite an inferno. The Chief kept an eye out, Dante?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Your child did not get the thing he/she REALLY wanted, despite your best effort?
So how do children learn to cope with life's disappointments, Oh Wise One? I remember that I was more or less disappointed most Christmasses, but I always got something that was nice, that my parents and siblings could actually afford and had bought with love for me, and learned to put up with that.
I believe that it is not actually bad for children not to have absolutely everything they want, exactly when they want it.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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Post posting (!)
I have just remembered that the most disappointing present I ever received was a haibrushm from one of my aunts, when I was nine. I still use that hairbrush every day of my life to arrange my curls. 52 years of use ain't bad for a disappointing pressie!!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Christmas traditions? When we were children, and set up the creche, the wise were positioned at the far side of the room, and each day moved closer to the creche, (the good kid of the day got the privilege of moving them) and didn't arrive till little Christmas..
and as Rhu suggest– it is possible to have a christmas with out disappointments?
My parent were so much better at missing the mark than hitting it, I came to expect my Christmas present to be not what I desired.
One year stands out as an exception.. I needed a new winter jacket, and under the tree was a large box.. My mother in particular warned me as I opened the box that she hadn't looked through the rack, and that I could exchange it for something in pale pink or blue.. She went on and on, assuring me I didn't have to like the contents.. I could exchange it...
When finally got it open, I found a jacket that looked as it was made from a bear skin..with a racoon type trim about the hood. (It was a fake fur). I loved it. Once again my mother suggested I could exchange it for some soft pastel nylon jacket– the "style" of the time.. And I said oh no– its perfect...
For the next several years, my mother rued the day she hadn't bothered to look for something, and just picked up the first thing she saw on the rack...
Congratulation to Rhu on having retained your curls... I don't have (never did) curly hair, but my siblings who did, have the problem that their grey hairs come in straight.. Since they all tend to have very tight curls ( lambs wools hair the Irish say) their grey hairs are all the more evident..
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I agree with Rhu. It is not a bad thing for kids not to have absolutely everything that they want. When they do get everything, it makes for spoiled children who expect their food already cooked and chewed for them.
My parents were never rich and could not afford expensive or lavish gifts yet I don't recall ever being disappointed with any Christmas gift. Christmas has always been such a hubbub in our family. Before I picked up the torch, the réveillon was held at my mom and dad’s house. In their small apartment (two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room) there would be some 25 or 30 people singing away, playing the guitar, mouth organ or accordion, with many a toast raised to friends and family. The festive air always made everything so magical. The gifts were secondary the family reunion was the thing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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Oh, dear... I don't think I explained it very well. My children had several sparse Christmases and they asked for little and I was the one disappointed when I realized -- despite thier efforts to be excited about what they did get -- that I had missed the mark .... oh, I give up. Sorry I brought it up. The best laid plans, etc.
wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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My apologies, wow. I misunderstood your first post. It simply reminded my of a woman I know who always makes sure her kids get every last thing they want. Last Christmas, I invited them to my house and when I gave the children some gifts, the elder child (7 year old) pouted through the whole thing. When it came time to leave she started kicking the gift and saying, "this is not what I wanted," over and over again. The mom's response, "we'll go buy you what you want on the way home dear." I didn't invite them this year.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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My most disappointing present was a dictionary. What on earth would I need one of those for? I'd have much preferred lego or some dolls clothes! Of course I grew to adore the reference book that my uncle bought for Christmas, Pears Cyclopaedia http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/pears.htm, the Guinness Book of Records, an even better dictionary and eventually at great expense an ODQ (brilliant for finding the rest of the line we had to write - "find "The quality of mercy is not strained ...", finish the sentence and write it 50 times", one teacher barked .. the phone was busy that night!) I've now become the "aunt" who buys books. The Dorling Kidersley reference books http://www.mobiusconsulting.com/bookstore/dk.htm are so fascinating and although I'm not always thanked so much when they are given, I'm often thanked later in the year, when everyone is rushing around to find a good book to help with the latest school project as I once thanked my uncle!
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