Kids and presents

I stole this idea from a friends blog, http://www.womenbiblelife.com/ She is much more biblical then I am but I too noticed that presents and lollies don't make kids happy. Last year I was looking after a 4 yr old boy and I noticed he was continually asking for lollies and toys and things but would lose interest in even the lollies pretty quickly.

I began to suspect he actually didn't like them and was only asking for them as part of a generally pleasant interaction with him dad. I did not give him a toy or a treat for the first four months and even after that he was not especially interested in them. Some people try to make up for this by increasing the quality of the gift but the result is still the same, initial excitement then disinterest.

For the child, he actually preferred the traditions and activities we had that meant we spent happy quality time enjoying each others company. He enjoyed the bedtime reading of the big picture bible, the walks, going to the pool, and playing with other kids toys at bible study, he even enjoyed going shopping and choosing books at the library.

Some kids have a primary love language of gifts but even then there needs to be a huge amount of the other four languages, if his primary love language in NOT gifts, he will see them as trying to buy love, or bribery for good behaviour rather then the act of love it was meant to be.

One more thing, appreciation of gifts goes down with expectation and with over familiarity. Too many too often means they lose their specialness, like going to a resteraunt