as my younger one is too young & we're just dipping our toes in the water with the older one.
Feel free to laugh at me for having the nerve to chime in, but we're also mindful of this & wondering. So far, we're pretty type B & mindful of avoiding "over spoiling" them, etc. Still, the reality is that we can afford to heat our house in the winter, cool our house in the summer, buy the food we want, buy them clothes, etc. And not having to worry about the basics is a hallmark of luxury for most of the world.
Both dh & I had more spare childhoods. Dh can remember Burger King every Friday being a huge treat (due to cost, not health) & I can remember seeing my breath in the house in the winter most of my growing up years. So we can't replicate exactly how we grew up. (Nor would we want to b/c I'll be danged if I'm going to see my own breath inside my house in the winter or have a space heater hanging from a nail on the bedroom wall, heating the room. I can remember eating breakfast on the kitchen floor b/c that's where that space heater was, & my brother & I used to fight over space in front of the heater. The line down the middle was the dividing line, with each of us in front of half the heater. It was actually a good thing for our characters, but yeah, I'm not going to replicate that one. LOL!)
So far, & I'm definitely still navigating the very beginnings of this, it seems to me that it is going to take a constant, consistent effort to reinforce the values that many of us came by the hard way or at least the harder way.
It's more work for us as parents & requires planning & thought. Which is hard b/c we're all over extended. But I do think it requires a concerted effort. And so far, even though I'm barely beginning this, that effort is constantly thwarted by other parents & kids. Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I do think volunteering & making kids aware of those less fortunate helps a lot. Ds #1 is still small, but I did talk to him once about how some people have no homes. Unfortunately for me, he tends to ask complicated questions that I can't find a way to answer well, but it does stick with him. (Like why, which left me struggling to get across in an age-appropriate manner that sometimes it's by choice, sometimes it's due to bad choices, but regardless, it's cold in the winter, hot in the summer, etc.) He mentioned it only the other day, so it stuck at some level.
OTOH, just last night, instead of being grateful he got a fun evening at a party place plus pizza, courtesy of his tee call coach, he ended the evening in near tears all b/c we wouldn't let him get some darned cheap toy from a machine. He actually did start to cry but mostly stopped b/c I threatened him with bed & he knew I was ticked off. Really annoying. We probably should've done more talking to him then but at that point, we were trying to steer 2 boys toward the door despite their best efforts to go the opposite direction. Still, not stellar gratitude from ds, to say the least.
