Momma, Why Does Santa Love Some Kids More Than He Loves Me???

If you've been a Momma D follower you may recognize this post from previous years about this same time. Yes, it's a repeat, but that's because this is something I truly believe can't be said too often. Our children's hearts are tender and impressionable and we need to do what we can to guard and protect them from being injured. But we shouldn't have to feel like we're flying solo. As parents we need to be mindful of the hearts of all children. So with that being said, please keep reading and please take these words to heart. 

About few years ago I read something that broke my heart. It was an open letter from a mom to all the other moms ‘out there’. The woman was asking moms across the country to please have Santa give their children ordinary gifts rather than expensive, extravagant items like phones, computers, gaming devices, designer clothes, and the latest and greatest toys. She asked that if parents chose to give their children these items that they come from them instead of Santa.

Why? Because she never wanted to be put in the position of having to answer her six year-old daughter’s question again—“Why does Santa Claus like other kids more than he does me?”

This loving mother explained that she and her husband worked hard to provide for their two children, but their paychecks barely paid for the necessities in life like rent, childcare, food, utilities, clothes, and vehicle expenses. In other words, there wasn’t much left for Christmas.

“We couldn’t afford the things other kids in their classes at school got,” she said. “But when my daughter heard other kids talking about what they got, she was hurt and confused. Not because she didn’t get those things, but because she viewed the obvious differences as a sign that she wasn’t good enough in Santa’s eyes to merit such gifts—that she had done something bad or wrong to cause him not to bring her the same type of gifts some of her friends received.”

She went on to say that she didn’t want people feeling sorry for them and that she wasn’t asking for a hand-out. She just wanted to remind people that since we tell our kids that Santa loves all boys and girls and that he brings gifts to them because of this love, we need to make Santa an ‘equal opportunity gift-giver’.

So as you get ready to head out to grab up all those great deals and try to fulfil the wishes of everyone on your gift list, remember that it really isn’t the cost or extravagance of the gift, but the fact that you thought of giving anything at all. Besides, if you think about it, Santa can’t possibly afford all those things, so….

Love,

Momma D

                                  Copyright 2018 Darla Noble. No part of this can be used or copied without permission from the author. 

                                                                                                                     

A Majority of One Still Needs to Win

With Thanksgiving being less than a week away it’s no wonder our thoughts gravitate toward sitting ]around the table with our family and/or friends eating more than we should, and enjoying those obscure foods we save for this time of year. You know which ones I’m talking about—those Jell-O salads with their weird combinations of ingredients, stuffing, sickeningly-sweet sweet potatoes, and cranberry something or other. Or do we really look forward to them? How many of you actually eat these "it-wouldn’t-be-Thanksgiving-without-them dishes"?

Personally I like several of those weird ingredient Jell-O recipes. Hey, don’t knock ‘em unless you’ve tried ‘em. As for the stuffing, sugary potatoes, and cranberry ‘whatever’, I’ll pass. But just because I don’t like these things doesn’t mean no one else does. Case in point: the cranberry ‘whatever’. 

My grandpa loved the cranberry salad my mom always made. I think a couple of other people may have taken a bite or two of it, but that was it. So why did she bother? She made it because there was someone at the table who looked forward to it being part of our Thanksgiving meal, and to the leftovers he’d have in the days following. 

Now I know you’re probably thinking the story of my grandpa and the cranberry salad are leading up to a lesson in being thankful or something along those lines. But that’s not it at all. It’s about your responsibility as a parent to make sure your kids know the number one is NOT the loneliest number and that being a majority of one does NOT cancel out their need or right to be heard. 

Let me explain it a little further...

A ‘majority of one’ means there’s only one person in your family who likes, needs, or wants a particular thing. But just because they are the only one, doesn’t release you from your responsibility to make sure they get it. For example, if only one of my four children had a food allergy, would I make them eat the foods they were allergic to because everyone else could? No way! But on the other hand, I wouldn’t keep the non-allergic kids from eating it.

What I’m saying is that your children need to know that not only is it okay to be their special, unique self, but that you will help and encourage them in the process. I’m not talking about fixing three different meals because you have picky eaters. I’m talking about life; academic strengths and weaknesses, natural talents and abilities, personality traits, and preferences in music, clothes, and things like that. 

So remember, a majority of one is still a majority when it comes to your kids, and majority always ‘rules’. 

                             HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

Love,

Momma D

                    Copyright 2018 Darla Noble. No part of this can be used or copied without permission from the author.