Some of you who read this may think I am the meanest mom in the world. That’s OK. My kids have already accused me of the same. Those same kids who have 12 aunts and uncles and two sets of grandparents who shower them with gifts each Christmas and on birthdays and at various times in between.
Thankfully, both families now use Kris Kringle/Secret Santa which helps a little, but the pile of Amazon boxes under our Christmas tree is still positively decadent. So this year, the WanderDad and I decided to take the opportunity presented by holiday gift-giving to help our boys to develop a social conscience.
The Seattle Times recently reported startling increases in the number of people using local food banks. The line outside the food bank near my house has grown significantly over the past few months. With this in mind, I researched charities which focus on helping children and families such as Save the Children and UNICEF.
Unfortunately, although donating to these charities is pretty easy, it’s not very child-friendly. BigB is eight, he still needs a present under the Christmas tree and the excitement of opening it on Christmas morning. A little discouraged, but intent on my mission, I kept searching and I found the WWF Adopt-An-Animal program where gift donations come with 12″ soft toys. Perfect.
CAM has chosen to support Tree Frogs and BigB Snowy Owls (I suspect there’s a little Harry Potter influence there). After their initial horror at their crazy parents suggesting “no Christmas presents”, they’ve totally come around to the idea. The cute, plush animals definitely helped. Worth considering for your guy or gal?
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Tags:charitable giving
I think that’s a great idea. I try to instill into my 3 (almost 4 yr old) the importance of giving. I do however, let him have his toys (we buy minimal) and for each one that comes in, one has to be donated. Be it an old or new one. It works for us, especially as his birthday is in December and we are overwhelmed with gifts.
With DonorsChoose you can get gift cards (or maybe just emails that you have a gift…). That lets kids go in and contribute to a project that they think makes sense…My older son didn’t give a boy a birthday gift a few years ago, as that child said “no really, I don’t want anything, take what you would spend on me, and give it to someone who really needs it.” Of course all the other kids bought this boy a gift anyway (and my son felt bad that he hadn’t). DonorsChoose (or some other choice mechanism) would have been a way to have this boy feel like he still got something and “got to give”.
That sounds like a wonderful idea. We plan to do something like that when our son gets a bit older (he’s 21 months now). I think it is very important for them to understand that it isn’t just about them. Good for you for sticking to your guns!
brava! we just talked about this last night. our daughter has way too many toys, books, computer games. time to change the system.
Thanks for the support everyone.
@Roberta: I’m impressed. Good for you starting so young.
@Claire: thanks for the DonorsChoose reference, I’ll keep that in mind for future.
This is a great idea. Since my kids are little, they have no expectations about what they should get for Hanukkah, and we’ll keep it that way as long as possible 😉 They get tons of presents from grandparents, so I buy them a few books and call it a day.
This is going to be a tough year for our local independent toy store though, and I’m considering buying a few more things than I usually do. Maybe I’ll sock them away for a rainy day…
This year, we’ll also have a family outing to buy a few presents to give to kids who aren’t so lucky.
Kiva is another idea for older kids. Artie Isaac wrote about it in his blog. Worth a read. http://youngisaac.typepad.com/artie/2008/11/kivacom.html