6 Ways to avoid overly-spoiling your child this Christmas

daphne

18 Dec 2017

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Get them involved
Christmas is the perfect opportunity for family bonding activities such as decorating Christmas trees, baking cookies and cakes and even spring cleaning the house. Let your kids help out around the house (even if they're making a mess). This is one way to show them that there's so much more to Christmas than just presents and gifts.
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Charitable acts of kindness
Make it a yearly affair for the whole family to go down to an orphanage, old folks home or animal shelter. Encourage them to sort their clothes and toys, donate money from their own piggy banks and pack food for charity. We cannot stress enough the valuable lessons your children would take from this memorable trip. They will learn to know how blessed they really are, how to give and not receive and to appreciate everything they have.
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Set budgets
For Christmas every year, make it a point where you set budgets for yourself, family and friends. Decide on an appropriate amount to spend on your child and stick to it. People, especially grandparents, tend to go overboard with the gifts they spend. So it's important you let them know in advance, their options of what you find acceptable — preferably nothing grand and very simple.
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Creating a wish list
Children grow up to be more materialistic when parents let them pick out the gifts just by pointing it out. Instead, ask them to explain why they want something and suggest they write it down on a wish list. Your job is pick one meaningful gift or nothing at all. In this way, they will learn that nothing comes easy and they won't always get want they want.
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Let them give instead
Who says children only receives during Christmas? It's time to turn the tables and let the children gift instead! Give them the decision to choose everything but help them set aside the appropriate amount of money. Because really, it's the thoughts that count.
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Ignore peer pressure
It's easy to get affected by your children's comments they make, comparing their friends and their parents — how they got better gifts and bigger toys. But don't ever let that get to you. Always give them good reasons for not buying something and never start raising your voice. It will only make them angrier and more defiant in the future. Stick to your decisions since you should know what's best for your child. They will grow up to know that too.

‘Tis the season to raise grateful kids – not Christmas brats!

What is the best way to celebrate the season of joy and giving? With your family and friends of course! After all, Christmas is a time for families to make new memories and bond together over food – and most definitely, presents.

However, with the spending power that most parents have today, children run the risk of getting increasingly greedy and materialistic. They expect the latest toys and gadgets, often overlooking and forgetting the fact that it is the little things that matter. Well, we can’t blame them; they are kids, after all.

That is why it’s so important to educate them on the right manners and etiquettes from young. Make it a heartwarming and teachable Christmas every year with our guide on how to raise grateful, well-behaved children (and not Christmas brats) — truly the best present any parent could ask for.

Daphne Leo

Photos: Getty Images

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