I think I mentioned how I feel about American Girl dolls. If I didn't go into detail, let me right now. I think they are incredibly overpriced and I hate trends like this that go around and make kids feel bad if they don't have one. Don't even get me started on the accessories - $25 for an outfit. I don't even spend that much on most of SOPHIA'S clothes!! It's stuff like this that make me angry that this country is in this finance crisis - people are losing their homes and are unemployed, but American Girl dolls that are the price of most cell phone bills, let's make sure they stick around. But, I digress.
Sophia hardly ever asks for stuff, so when we asked what she wanted for her birthday and said an American Girl doll, we thought about it and decided to get her one. She had just gotten one from her mom for Christmas (which makes two at her moms, a baby and a doll) so she wanted one for our house. We really don't buy the kids hardly anything. We just don't have the money to be frivolous or buy them each and every thing they as for (nor would we anyway, we just don't think that's OK), but for birthdays and Christmas, we try to get them one thing they ask for and really want (within reason, that is). Sophia had asked for this for weeks and was happy when she got it.
Today, at church, they had an American Girl doll party where the church provided little salons and tea for lunch. We didn't know about this before today and we didn't bring her doll, so on the way home, we started hearing this..."I want a girl doll, not just the baby." (They make babies for kids Sophie's age and dolls with hair for kids over 8). We told her, no, she had the baby, and that was fine. Then the pouting started and we heard, "I have both at my mom's house." Sigh. Well, this is really not her normal attitude. She is just not into material things that much, so I was really disappointed with her attitude. I turned around and said, "If you don't like the doll we gave you, we would be more than happy to take it back. If I hear another word, I will. Be thankful for what you have." We didn't hear about it again.
My mom and dad came over this afternoon, so I told Soph to show Gigi her new doll. She went in her room and after about 5 minutes I heard, "I don't want to." I went into her room and I found her on her bed. I said, "What's wrong, why don't you want to show us your doll?" She had this look on her face and I knew something was up. She didn't answer me. I said, "Soph, what is under the cover, is it your doll?" She had this look on her face of terror. She nodded yes. I said, "Did you do something to your doll?" She said yes, and I pulled back the blanket to find blue pen all over her face. She had tears welling up in her eyes. You could tell she was really upset and knew she did something wrong. I said, "why did you do this?" She said, sobbing, "I don't know." I said, "Go show your dad." That's when the real crying started. "No! No! I don't want to! I will get in trouble!" I told her she needed to be honest with him about what she did. He saw it and was really upset.
We weren't punishing upset or yelling upset. Honestly, it's not that she wrote on her doll. Its the fact that we really sacrificed to get that doll for her. We didn't get each other anniversary presents so the kids could have presents for their birthdays and we could take them to the places they wanted to go eat. And we know that since she wrote on it, she's not going to want to play with it anymore. It's like watching your hard earned money go straight down the toilet. It makes me not want to get them stuff anymore. Jordan keeps up with his stuff ok, I guess, but he loses stuff a lot too. And then, when he does get stuff, he just keeps asking for more.
I don't want the kids to grow up never getting any toys at all, but I don't know how to raise kids that are not materialistic, especially when they get a lot of stuff at their mom's house. That's very hard. We try to do the best we can with what we have, but like I said, it's hard.
Well, hopefully, we can get the pen out. Sigh.
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