A lesson in shoeboxes and self-LESS-ness
I am so proud of Miss E. Yesterday we spent some time shopping for supplies to fill two shoeboxes with gifts for needy children in our area and she did so well! This is a hard time of year for kids to go to the store. The stores are stuffed to overflowing with stuff they want and it all looks just a little more sparkly and shiny thanks to the creative genius of the marketing folks. One step into a store is all it takes to get your 'wanter' going.
I had taken time to talk with Miss E about what we were doing long before we ever hit the store. In fact, I had begun the process by identifying a couple of like new, rarely used toys from our home and had asked Miss E if two girls who don't have toys could have her toys. She made a couple of changes to my selections but seemed to be well on board with the idea of sharing her things with others.
Making our way through the store, we started by picking two toothbrushes and two tubes of toothpaste. We wound our way through the store, past the really large and exceptionally shiny aisle of marketed-just-for-three-year-olds toys to the school supplies, working our way through crayons and notebooks and that type of thing. These things were a little bit harder to buy for someone else but she picked things out that she would like completely understanding that they were not for her.
The toy aisle was a even harder and I often heard her reasoning that she could 'tell Santa Claus about that' but the real kicker came in the aisle that had hair do-dads, purses and princess jewelry. At one point she had three purses in her hands - one for her and one for each of 'those girls'. We took a minute to talk about the fact that she already has quite a few purses at home and after a lot of what I know was an internal struggle for her she conceded that Santa Claus could know about the purse for her and that we would only buy one for each shoebox.
Our final purchase were two packages of princess rings. With eyes more sparkly than the entire display she pulled three packages off of the shelf and was ready to hit the trail. I stopped her by reminding her that we were only shopping for the girls. She eventually made the right decision by putting one package back and we were ready to go.
After nap time and dinner at Ana & Papa's house, Papa helped Miss E divide the items between the two shoeboxes. She again did so well with it, even recognizing the toys that she had picked from home for the girls and telling Papa that she was giving them to 'the girl'. And after the mountain of purchases were divided between the shoeboxes and nothing remained for her, she was still okay with the whole process of giving.
I know how hard it was for her to walk away from the Princess rings! But I wanted her to fully understand the concept that it is better to give than to receive. The lesson of self-less-ness is so important and I wanted it to be crystal clear to her. But completely unknown to her, I had snuck a third package of the rings into our cart and had managed to conceal them through the entire shoebox packing process. When everything was done I pulled her onto my lap and told her that I was very proud of her for giving to little girls who don't have anything. I also told her that I knew that it was very hard to buy things for other people without getting anything for herself and then I showed her the third package of rings and told her that mommy had bought them just for her.
Her eyes lit up and it wasn't long before seven of her fingers were adorned with princess rings!
It wasn't too much later that she said to me 'Thank you mama! For the rings. That was really hard. And I don't want to talk about it more.'
Lesson learned I do believe.
I had taken time to talk with Miss E about what we were doing long before we ever hit the store. In fact, I had begun the process by identifying a couple of like new, rarely used toys from our home and had asked Miss E if two girls who don't have toys could have her toys. She made a couple of changes to my selections but seemed to be well on board with the idea of sharing her things with others.
Making our way through the store, we started by picking two toothbrushes and two tubes of toothpaste. We wound our way through the store, past the really large and exceptionally shiny aisle of marketed-just-for-three-year-olds toys to the school supplies, working our way through crayons and notebooks and that type of thing. These things were a little bit harder to buy for someone else but she picked things out that she would like completely understanding that they were not for her.
The toy aisle was a even harder and I often heard her reasoning that she could 'tell Santa Claus about that' but the real kicker came in the aisle that had hair do-dads, purses and princess jewelry. At one point she had three purses in her hands - one for her and one for each of 'those girls'. We took a minute to talk about the fact that she already has quite a few purses at home and after a lot of what I know was an internal struggle for her she conceded that Santa Claus could know about the purse for her and that we would only buy one for each shoebox.
Our final purchase were two packages of princess rings. With eyes more sparkly than the entire display she pulled three packages off of the shelf and was ready to hit the trail. I stopped her by reminding her that we were only shopping for the girls. She eventually made the right decision by putting one package back and we were ready to go.
After nap time and dinner at Ana & Papa's house, Papa helped Miss E divide the items between the two shoeboxes. She again did so well with it, even recognizing the toys that she had picked from home for the girls and telling Papa that she was giving them to 'the girl'. And after the mountain of purchases were divided between the shoeboxes and nothing remained for her, she was still okay with the whole process of giving.
I know how hard it was for her to walk away from the Princess rings! But I wanted her to fully understand the concept that it is better to give than to receive. The lesson of self-less-ness is so important and I wanted it to be crystal clear to her. But completely unknown to her, I had snuck a third package of the rings into our cart and had managed to conceal them through the entire shoebox packing process. When everything was done I pulled her onto my lap and told her that I was very proud of her for giving to little girls who don't have anything. I also told her that I knew that it was very hard to buy things for other people without getting anything for herself and then I showed her the third package of rings and told her that mommy had bought them just for her.
Her eyes lit up and it wasn't long before seven of her fingers were adorned with princess rings!
It wasn't too much later that she said to me 'Thank you mama! For the rings. That was really hard. And I don't want to talk about it more.'
Lesson learned I do believe.
Awesome!
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