I’ve been reading a chapter of “Shepherding a Child’s Heart” every week and summarizing it on my blog on Tuesdays.

Chapter 8 encouraged parents to learn how to help children articulate their thoughts and feelings which is better than mommy just giving a lecture.

He stresses the same importance of looking at the heart of the attitude too. God Bless!

Sometimes you can find cheap subscriptions to children’s magazines. I think kids like to receive mail and a magazine encourages reading.

I’ve thought about the Mommy Store and it might be about time to start that, but I don’t know how to go about it (my oldest of four is 6). I’m going to check out your post on that.

Another thing we do at Christmas is trade names, so that the other families aren’t buying for all our kids (we’re working on #5–the other two families only have 1 and 2). The grandparents give a mix of fun (like a craft kit), homemade (like a quilt or doll blanket), and useful gifts (like toothbrushes and markers). Our kids are content with that and happy with what they get. The excitement and appreciation on our faces goes a long way to teaching them.

It’s really hard when your views on family and what a family should value differs from extended family, but there’s really nothing you can do about that. I found that after the first year, they did accept my stance on gifts, begrudgingly. I still get flack for it, but knowing that I’m doing what I need to as a mom helps me remember that I don’t need the praise of men (even my family) if I am honoring the Lord by teaching my kids stewardship and selflessness.

Good luck this Christmas season! I am already praying for it for us.

But, what you CAN do is put a limit in the home of how much “space” is designated for toys, limiting the number they have. Before Holidays or events when you know new toys will be given, go through everything and throw away anything broken or with missing pieces. Then, figure out what they don’t play with anymore and donate it.

If the other families find out, the only thing you can do is explain your “space” situation, or that it was broken, etc.

The BIGGEST thing you can do is talk up the things you would like your children to choose. If the families WANT them to tell them what they would like, then encourage your own kids to make a better choice. Have them look through clothing catalogues, too and make positive comments about those. Get pamphlets from the zoo, museum, or even a family fitness club!

In the end, you do what you have to do as a family in your home, but you’ll probably end up biting your tongue a lot, and just letting THEM deal with their own emotions. Could be bigger problems

When I was growing up my mom was a single mom with four kids and worked all the time just to make ends meat. I never felt like our Christmas’s were poor though. The thing is we always focused more on making things for each other then buying things for each other. As kids we loved the creative outlet and it was exciting to try and come up with ideas of things we could make (with moms help) as gifts for friends and family. By making them ourselves it often was much cheaper or no cost at all, and yet we have many great memories of spending time together. We also focused more on the feasting and baking together, and caroling; instead of shopping.