The meaning of Christmas

We all do it. We sit there at the playground looking around at all those other children, thinking, I am so happy my child isn’t that way. My child is polite and courteous. Just look at him, he never pushes or hits. He always waits his turn to go down the slide. I am most certain he just took off his jacket to lay it over a puddle so that little girl wouldn’t get her feet wet. I love the way he glides around the playground, hovering just inches off the ground, quite angelic like. I must be a good parent to have raised such a wonderful kid, right?

Then why do we have those stupid ideas? Let me set the scene. It is just weeks before Christmas. My son has just turned 3 years old. He is just now getting the concept that there is such thing as Santa. He sees all the presents under the tree, and of course, they are mostly for him.  He also understands that presents are the best thing in the entire universe, they mean NEW toys.  I am starting to think he is not getting the true point of Christmas.  So, we head to the Toys R Us. We buy his cousins their presents and bring them home to wrap them.  I am excited to teach my darling son that Christmas is about giving, not receiving.  If he learns this early in life it will make him a better person, with a kind heart.  You see, I really am a good parent, right?

So, we get home and proceed to remove all of the treasures from our bag.  I get out the wrapping paper ready to wrap! I look over and my son is trying to pry open the box of crayons that we have bought for his cousin. Now, I want you to realize how ridiculous this is, because my son must have a million crayons not 3 feet from him, but these are NEW crayons.  I try to reason with him that these are not for him and that we are going to wrap them so we can GIVE them to his cousin.  And, without any warning, World War III breaks out in our living room.  Wrapping paper gets ripped, the crayons get stepped on, and a total and complete fit gets thrown. It was a really good one too! Needless to say my lesson in giving turned out to be a lesson for me! Three year olds do not understand giving, it is not in their nature. However, they do understand time out.