Sunday, November 30, 2008

Everything You Want

What a week it has been. Hubby is back from his motorcycle trip, the holiday is over and everything is supposed to go back to normal tomorrow. Now I have the task of keeping the green-eyed monster at bay while my preschooler is bombarded daily with commercials, sales ads and signs everywhere screaming at him about all the fun and exciting toys he should have. right. now.

Last year was really bad and I am anticipating that this year will be even worse. Every time I get a newspaper or a sale paper in the mail, Kiddo has to snag anything with toys advertised and he pours over the pages for hours on end. Then he comes to me to ask me for the things he finds, and over and over again I tell him he needs to put it on his list and send it to Santa.

Unfortunately for me the boy has an amazing memory, and if he even remotely thinks he will get any of these items for Christmas he is going to be one sad little boy come December 25th.

The concept of what we can and can't afford is far too much for him. I have tried explaining basic money and saving for things - he just. doesn't. get it. I can go over it and over it and over it and 5 minutes later he'll bring me a hand full of pennies from his bank and ask me to take him to the store because he saved enough money for some toy.

This is why 4 is so frustrating to me. He has the vocabulary. He can carry on a conversation. I think he understands things, based on what he says and the phrases he uses. But if you ask him enough questions you realize that he just doesn't understand. He thinks he does -which makes it even more difficult because once he thinks he has a concept he completely shuts down and won't listen to anything you have to say.

*sigh*

Port's sleep training is going pretty well. The No-Cry Sleep Solution is not a quick fix by any means, so we will be at it for a while. We will have good days and bad. Hopefully now that the first tooth has come out we can have a bit of a reprieve. I really need a few nights of solid sleep without small feet and hands pushing into me.

More tomorrow. I am too tired to write any more at this point.

Until,
D :)

3 comments:

TitanKT said...

Don't expect a money/finance/savings epiphany any time soon, either. Mine is still a little fuzzy on the concept at 7 years old. Yesterday he asked me to get him a Lamborghini when he's 16. *rolleyes*

I tell him I don't have a lot of money to just buy stuff or to be wasteful and he seems to get that, kind of. Sometimes he'll want something really little, like to rent a game, and he'll be all happy when I have money for that and he thinks $100 is a lot of money... next thing you know he's assuming I'll be able to buy him a Lamborghini nine years from now. Of course, that's really just because he has no concept of how much a Lamborghini really costs versus how much money I really make. Heh.

It will come eventually but it has taken a LONG time to get him to understand that I can't just run out and buy him an XBox.

It's also taken a LONG time to get him to understand about keeping up with and taking care of his things because I can't necessarily run out and replace a broken Nintendo DS or keep buying him new jackets because he can't be bothered to keep up with his. A LOOOONG time!

So... be patient and keep working at it. He will get it, but it will take years yet.

Julia said...

I think the concept of money is lost on a lot of people even as adults! That's probably why some people have astronomical credit card debt. I'm dreading the day when C starts to ask for everything. The worst that I've had it so far is that she points out something that she wants at the store, pitches a small fit when I don't "take it home" (which is her way of saying for me to buy something), but I can put a stop to the fit by saying to her maybe for her birthday.

What was S looking at? Was it something in particular, or is it everything that catches his eye from the ads?

D said...

Pretty much everything catches his eye at one point or another. There are a couple of things he has zeroed in on - but most of the time he begs me for things that don't even make sense. ex: he wants a *green* Leapster he sees in the toy ad when he already owns a blue one.