Why Some People Want Parents To Stop Saying Expensive Gifts Came From Santa
But that doesn’t mean Christmas looks the same in every household. While some parents are fortunate enough to be able to afford to get their kids anything they want, not all parents have the bank accounts to allow them to do that.
The problem with this is that the parents who can afford to get their kids expensive toys can sometimes tell their kids that the toy came from Santa—a seemingly harmless tactic to getting into the Christmas spirit, right?
The problem with that, however, is that these kids are likely telling their friends that Santa brought them their fancy toy or costly iPads, and inadvertently making the less fortunate kids (and their parents) feel bad.
Well, one mom has had enough of that. In a Facebook post, she went on a tangent about how parents need to stop telling their kids that they’re getting these flashy gifts from the man in red.
“Stop telling your Santa age kids that their iPads and iPhones, and 200 dollar toys are from Santa,” she wrote on the Facebook page MotherHood. “‘Cause some families can’t afford that. Little kids [will] wonder why they got socks or a coat or hand-me-down toys from Santa and other kids got an iPad.”
It’s not just the kids that get upset over it—it’s the parents, too, who may feel as if they’ve done something wrong by not getting their kids expensive gifts.
“This is the second year I’ve had a parent cry to me telling me that their kid asked if they weren’t good enough or if Santa didn’t like them as much,” the post read. “Breaks my heart for the parents and the kids.”
So what’s a parent to do? “Take the credit for the gift,” the parent concludes. “Santa didn’t buy that iPad. Momma did or Daddy did. Leave the less expensive gifts from Santa. Be blessed you can afford what others cannot.”
Seems fair, right? While some people commended the post and love the idea to cater to less fortunate kids, others weren’t so into the idea of having to tell their kids that Santa wasn’t responsible, let alone being told how to handle their own parenting.
Moms and dads went off, explaining that they will parent how they want to parent, and no one is going to tell them otherwise. Then there were the people who couldn’t believe how selfish some of these parents sounded. One mom offered some pretty solid words of wisdom: “How about we all parent however the heck we want?” she wrote. “I always just told my son not to brag about what he got anyway because some kids aren’t as fortunate as he is.”
At t the end of the day, everyone is entitled to how they want to parent, but it’s always helpful to offer a gentle reminder to the kids about not shoving anything in others’ faces.
What do you think about this topic? Do you think parents should tell their kids their expensive gifts are from Santa or have to tell them it’s from them?
