It’s been three days since Christmas, and Michael has not yet stopped with the whining:
“Where’s my present?”
We’ve tried very gently, and not-so-gently, that Christmas is done and he’s opened his presents.
“If I give Santa a dollar, he’ll bring me a present?”
“No, Michael. Santa doesn’t bring presents because you give him money.”
“Santa comes later?”
“Yes, next year.”
“Tonight?”
Then there’s the random whines during the day:
“I don’t have a present!”
“I’ll never get another present again!”
“I’m sad because I don’t have a present.”
You’d think he was forgotten at Christmas, that Santa brought him nothing but coal, which is what he deserved as far as I’m concerned.
He made out great. Not one, not two but three different kinds of little guns: a foam ball shooter, a classic cork pop gun, and a plastic suction-cup tipped dart gun. I made the mistake of showing him how to get a dart to stick to the window, and now this window has two hundred thirty-seven little smudgy rings coating it.
He received a passel of Magnaformers, little geometric shapes containing powerful magnets that can be attached to each other to create all manner of constructs.
He got this cool German building toy with wooden blocks and marbles for creating large ramps and passages for marbles to follow, with endless possibilities for expansion ($$$).
He has two new electronic toys from Leapfrog, a Leapster 2 and a Tag book set. He can take those wherever we go, or sit by himself and play with them for hours.
He got a “Helmet Heroes” police helmet and controller from his sister, something incredibly shrill and annoying, which is amazing considering the source. His other sisters are certainly going to regret hearing Michael run around, sirens and lights flashing, pulling everyone over for various spontaneously-imagined infractions. It even has theme music, a jazzy number that was obviously borrowed from some early seventies-era cop drama.
Yet this is not enough for him. He wants more.
When will his appetite for presents be satisfied? When will his thirst for more be slaked?
Only time will tell.
His birthday is in the spring, and I’m sure it’ll start again then.
Stay strong, Tom! Stay strong!
(It gets way more expensive when they’re teens! LOL)
Yup, I know exactly what you mean. At four, they’re satisfied with junk that costs less than a buck fifty. In the teen years, you have to tack a couple of zeroes on that figure.
That’s pretty rough. We’ve had a few requests of MORE but nothing major. I managed to explain the time span to my four year old by referencing the seasons.
I told her we need to…
“get through winter and then Spring (new leaves and flowers). From there we go into Summer (swimming at Grandpas) and then Fall. When all this is done we are getting close to Christmas again.”
She seemed to get it. Good luck!
I’m glad that your kids get it. Despite our best explanations and most creative approaches, he apparently ignores it all and pops right back with the same question: “Can I open another present?”
Even for some adults, there is never enough to be satisfied. I am sure that Michael will learn with time(and such good parents) that he already has it all.
That is my hope as well… but he’s an awfully tough nut to crack.
You’d better start shopping for his birthday now!
Teaches you for showing him how to get the darts to stick. He’ll soon get the message about Christmas and you’ll get your reprive…
@Momo – I’ll probably just make a huge order of cheap plastic junk from Oriental Trading Company so he’ll have more things to open than he can deal with.
@Mike – He’s stopped shooting the window and started shooting me. I hope it’s at least cathartic for him.
It’s such a tough one to teach. I know what you mean about the “value” they put on items. A couple of years ago we splurged for ThingOne’s birthday and got her a trampoline ($$$) and some Strawberry Shortcake Chapstick from the dollar store. Which one do think she told people about when they asked her what she got for her birthday?
I have told his mom often that we should just wrap up some large empty boxes and a couple of wide-tipped sharpies and be done with it.