Today’s Mom Minute topic is about spoiled children. We’ve all known some, have spoiled our own, or perhaps even been one.
There is a definitely a huge difference between providing for a child’s needs versus their wants. Trying to satisfy the former is what we are supposed to do. Providing food, shelter, education, physical care, and love, etc, are why we have this very important role as parents. Providing for a child’s every wants can be very detrimental to them. I often think of little Veruca Salt from the Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory movie as she whined, “Daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa now!”
Kate, a viewer, asks this question, “How can you buy clothes and toys for your kids without spoiling them?“
Although we are not perfect in our home, we have tried to teach our children the value of responsible hard work from a very young age {examples were provided in last week’s post}.
If you were to ask our children what the response is to asking for toys/electronics/clothes, etc, they can recite the refrain, “Is this a want or a need?” From there, our kids categorize the item into one of the two buckets on their own. If the item is not life sustaining, it goes into the want bucket.
If our children want the desired item bad enough, they will have to earn it. We find that they appreciate the item much more, taking very good care of it, if they contribute with their own money or with sweat equity.
The CGH kids have contributed to the purchases of clothes, extra curricular activities, birthday gifts for friends, field trips, etc, since they began kindergarten. They do not know differently, and understand that nothing in life comes free.
In just the few hours since the video went live on The Mom’s View YouTube channel this morning, we’ve had a few viewers claim that they feel that we very much spoil our children.
I personally do not feel that we do, feeling more that we go to great lengths to prevent it, but I guess that really depends on where you are standing.
We need to be careful as a society not to judge someone having a few nice things as being spoiled. It isn’t so much about what they have… but how they speak to, interact with, and treat others. Being a contribution to society very much involves accepting responsibility, respecting and helping others, and valuing hard work.
To see more about how to avoid spoiling children, and how to value hard work, please feel free to view the #MomMinute episode below…
What suggestions do you have on the subject?
Please free to leave your comments below…
Happy Parenting!
