We are struggling today with discontent.
A child who just isn't content with what he/she has.
I wonder how other parents deal with this.
One such child in our fam comes home from a sleepover and wants a whole new room just like her friend. She's determined to move into our basement room. Daddy drives a hard bargain and says she may do this if she cleans up the basement. I can't say that's a bad deal on our end. (you should see our basement right now...worst it's every been...kitties can't even walk through it :)).
Then she wants to make all sorts of craft things like her friend had in her room. She cannot wait...she wants to do this immediately. She spent part of her afternoon doing this. Then tonight at Hailey's chili school auction she wants some Paris body sprays along with a nail gift certificate...we bid on them, but refuse to go above a certain number. She is mad. She has an attitude. She makes us all grumpy :(
How do you deal with a child who never seems satisfied with what they have? My thought is we need to do a mission project so she can see how little most people have in this world, especially those in third world countries.
I tire of trying to teach contentment. I know as humans we all struggle with this in some way, but I want to teach my kiddos how to appreciate what they have and not yearn for more. Any suggestions? I'm worn out from giving "be content" speeches today :(
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Well, these pics are long overdue...they are from the IN State Fair almost a month ago...but better late than never...I know my mom especial... -
...school is back in session. Pinch me now. Where in the world did our summer go? Obviously we left it in the dust and now it's back ... -
Why not take on a new instrument today?! 😬
5 comments:
Send her to Aunt Holly!!! ;)
lol! Is today ok?
Drive her up!!! :)
I actually have no idea. No idea how to teach this except to think that if you are limiting what she gets, even if it appears she isn't getting it, she probably is?
JB and I talk of this often as we both grew up without there really being very much and now will have kids that will have more, just b/c of his job, then we did ... how do we manage this.
I know Dave Ramsay talks a lot about this type of thing in his FINANCIAL PEACE book (not sure which one of the books.)
We've dealt with this (and continue to!) with our kids. When they start in on their "why don't WE have ____ like _____ does?" or "why can't I buy this?", etc, we remind them of what they do have, and that they have more than a LOT of other kids in the world. We also tell them that we choose to spend our money in other ways that those friends' families might not choose to. We also have more kids than those friends do, so there's less $$ to go around. Sometimes we tell them that even though those people might have some really great stuff, they might be in debt to have it, and that's not something God wants our family to do. We have sponsored a girl from El Salvador for the past several years, and we remind them that we put extra money aside each month to help her have some very basic needs met that they take for granted here. They love Zenaida, and pray for her every night...knowing of her and her story helps remind them how much they really do have. If they still don't stop complaining, they lose privileges. :)
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