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Encouraging Giving Instead of Gimme

QUESTION

Do you have any ideas on how to keep my kids from breaking into the "gimme, gimme's" with all the holidays coming up?

ANSWER

There are many ways to teach your kids to give instead of concentrating on getting throughout the holidays. You can make a list of people that need an extra bit of a lift during the holidays, then make a list of things you can do for those people.

Some things we have done for those on the "lift list" include the following:

  • We made a tie-quilt* for the children's hospital. It just uses yarn to hold it together.
  • Filling stockings is a standard idea. If for prison or jail, you can get lists of things that detainees are permitted to have -- and NOT have.
  • We've made stockings for people who are HIV positive, for "secret families" and for a women's shelter.
  • Make gift bag of sample size stuff like toothpaste and we collect and clean tube socks for kids going off to detention centers and/or foster homes.
  • If you have older children or as your children get older they can help at a local food bank or serving at a soup kitchen. That will give the kids a special perspective on those who are less fortunate and help them appreciate the holidays in a new way.

*To make a tie quilt: You have two pieces of fabric with quilt batting in the middle and you just sew pieces of yarn through the layers and tie them on one side. Then add blanket binding around the edge. It's fast.

There are many other family traditions posted on Kas's Website,
http://www.winmarkcom.com/holidayfamilytraditions.htm

--Kas

Kas Winters

Kas Winters, the "Mother of Family Ideas", provides resources to help families thrive. An author, illustrator, publisher and public speaker, this grandmother creates books, offers hundreds of family activity articles on her website and does workshops for parents and children. She also represents almost 70 other authors and helps writers get their words into print.

Kas is passionate about helping children develop a positive self-image, providing hands-on experiences that give them confidence, and building strong supportive relationships. Her basic philosophy is that children learn best when they think they are having fun and her book, "Mother Lode" includes more than 5,000 simple, activities for toddlers through teens making learning on any topic enjoyable and developing children's imaginations. Her ideas use everyday materials, usually free, which helps to make parenting easy. Kas has been the resident "family activities expert" on Pregnancy.org for a couple of years.