My children are selfish.
My children are innately selfish.
My children are innately selfish and I have to teach then not to be.
Quite the daunting task when the world they are growing up in revolves around instantly available, drive through, double espresso charged, "get more to be happier than you think you aren't" consumerism that is practically intebated into their little core persons.
In my opinion and upbringing the best cure for a chronic case of the gimmes is a healthy dose of the givems, generosity or charity. Fortunately, for parents, the holiday season is FULL of opportunities to get our children personally involved in practicing the art of giving. This year our kiddos got the chance to help out with Operation Christmas Child.
If you are not familiar with this charity it is an annual event sponsored by Samaritan's Purse. People are invited to fill a shoe box or 2 or 10 with various and sundry gift and essential items for a little boy or little girl in 3 different age brackets, 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14. Once you turn in your completed shoe boxes at a designated drop off spot they are shipped around the world to children in need. You even have the option of tracking your shoe boxes to see exactly where they ended up (hello geography lesson!). :-)
I was SO excited to have my kids participate in such a wonderful giving experience this year, I could barely contain my glee. The first thing I did was sit down and watch a video with them, on the OCC web site, so they could see the joy their shoe box items would bring to the little boy and girl we were sending them to. Here is the one we watched. This really helped them to make the connection and also removed the "but I want to buy it for me" when we went to the store to purchase our shoe box items.
They were allowed to spend $13 at the dollar store (hello math lesson!) so that we would still have $7 to pay for the shipping of each box. They had so much fun picking out things they thought "the little girl would like" or "the little boy would like". It almost made my heart burst with joy as they chose each item with care. I did have to veto a few things because it wouldn't have fit in the shoe box or the little girl probably would enjoy crayons more than a kitchen timer. :-) Our special shopping trip only took us about 20 minutes total and we headed home with 2 grocery bags full of generosity.
We spread everything out on the table
The kids filled the boxes, even adding a few pieces of their Halloween candy
Then they each wrote a little note to the boy and girl
And drew them a picture
I paid for the shipping costs online so that we could track where our shoe boxes ended up, taped the labels on them, Girl 5-9 and Boy 2-4. Then the very next Sunday we took them to church and added then to the enormous pile of shoe boxes on either side of the stage (I wish I had a picture of that. it was impressive). The kids were a little disappointed that they couldn't give the boxes to the children themselves, but there is a chance that the children might write a note back to them and how awesome would that be!?! Once the boxes are delivered I will get an e-mail telling us where they ended up and then maybe I will print off a map of the area and put it up somewhere the kids can see it and remember how good it felt to not be selfish. :-) This is definitely a holiday tradition we will be repeating in years to come.
