Spoiled

Have you noticed that the holidays are upon us?  It is true.  The very instant the clock struck midnight on Halloween night, the stores' Christmas mailers and catalogs descended upon my house and now this is what I have to live with:

And this is what I've heard for the past 2 days, "I want this... and oh!  I want this!  Mommy, I really, really want this!  This is so awesome, I want this!"  and so forth and so on.

Faith and Cannon have poured over the pages, marked every other item with a highlighter and then taken the scissors to the them. 

A Christmas list collage-- artsy and useful.

The older kids are beginning to piece together their Christmas lists as well.  Theirs are a little more reasonable- maybe 3 or 4 desires of their hearts.  Over time, they've developed some idea of what is really in the realm of possibility.  For the little ones, the possibilities are endless, the sky is the limit.  Ask for anything and everything you ever see anytime or anywhere that strikes your fancy in any way. 

They will learn.

Which brings me to an interesting discussion I had with Clark a few days ago.  He told me that he thought the kids in our family are kind of spoiled.

MOM:  Clark, what do you mean?  Have you noticed that we've got three kids in each bedroom and we do a lot of our shopping at DI?  We never pay full price for first run movies and rarely even go to the dollar theater.  Have you noticed that we almost never eat out, but rather always eat food that we prepare ourselves at home?  The only electronic/digital equipment you can call your own is an alarm clock and a super cheap CD player to listen to books on tape from the library.  Please tell me in what way you think you kids are spoiled?  Is it because we pay you too much attention?  We love you too much? Do you even know what "spoiled" means?

CLARK:  Well, I just mean that I get pretty much everything I want.  If I really, really want something,  I can usually get it.

MOM:  Ah, that is because you are a smart boy who has learned to only want the kind of things you know you can get!  Perhaps I should thwart your wishes even more?

CLARK:  No, no!  I like how things are.

MOM:   Okay, good.  Me too.