Thanks, But I Don’t Like That Anymore

Do you remember when I mentioned the many problems associated with doing your Christmas shopping early?  I forgot a big one.  A big one that has just come to light as of yesterday.  You see, kids change their minds over the course of several months.  Heck, they can change what they like in a matter of seconds!  So why did I think that they would still like any of the same things in December that they pined for in October?!  Rookie mistake, Tenor Dad.

Thursdays are the magical days where we have a convergence of Edward’s Taekwan-Do class and Ruby’s activity-free afternoon, so we get some good father-daughter time in while younger brother is out punching and kicking and leaping about.  Sometimes we go to the toy store.  Sometimes we get ice cream.  And sometimes we just get to have good conversations.  Yesterday was one of those last kinds, so I decided to strike up a back-and-forth about the most pressing question on my mind: what is on Ruby’s Christmas list.

As I ticked off the exciting things that I was sure she would want, (so sure, in fact, that many of them are currently hidden in our house), I was repeatedly told that she did not like those things anymore and did not want them at all.  Seriously?  None of them?  But of course I was sure she would still want her number one item, an American Girl doll!

“No, Daddy, I’m saving my money to buy that myself!”

“But if you got it for Christmas, you could use your money for something else!” I pleaded desperately.

“No, I need to learn how to set goals and save my money for them!” she said to me.  Who was this mature person?!

“Well, you could save your money for the accessories and stuff…”  It was too late.  All was lost.  She didn’t want it.  Even the suggestion of a snowboard, which she had wanted desperately less than a week earlier, was now met with ambivalence.  Did she want anything?  Books?  Toys?  Movies?  Clothes?  No?  This was going to be harder than I thought.

But the thing is, I think she has already learned the lesson I was learning yesterday.  We can take her to the store and she will see a dozen things that she has to have, but she doesn’t actually want or need any of them.  Once we get home, she has realized that she doesn’t have to have them.  Somehow we have been tricked into thinking that the best way to show our love at Christmastime is to purchase expensive gifts at the mall, but all it will really do is clutter up the house with things we don’t want or need, and my daughter has figured this out about 30 years before I did.  She is, as my grandmother would say, one smart cookie.  I couldn’t be more proud.  Now to check a bunch of return policies…