The best present for your child is you

You are enough for your child. Your child craves time with you. Not being in the same room as your child while you play on your phone. They want your full and undivided attention to know that they are the most important thing at that moment in time. If you want to reward your child do it with your time not material things.

Parents are riddled with guilt when it comes to their children for many different reasons. Advertisers know this and prey on your weaknesses. They produce plastic, loud noisy toys that are ridiculously expensive. As soon as it is your child’s birthday or Christmas or you’ve just spent a lot of time away from your child recently due to work or looking after a new baby etc. the knee jerk reaction is to run out and spend obscene amounts of money of plastic toot that takes over your house.

Admittedly when they first open the new toys they are very excited and play with them for a few minutes. Very quickly though, these toys lose their appeal. Being plastic and not loved they are treated roughly and before long break. This prompts parents to rush out and buy new toys to replace the old ones and so the cycle goes on. Due to pressures of advertising, peer pressure and generally expecting these types of toys to keep coming into your house your children will nag you for the latest toy.

Isn’t it funny how when children get new toys especially big toys the most fun they have isn’t with the toy but the box in which it was packaged in. All the adults joke I should have saved my money and just given you a box. Well there is actually a lot of truth in that.

Cast your mind back to your own childhood how exciting was a box? It could be anything you wanted it to be. It had the potential to evolve and change to suit your mood. There were hours of fun to be had as it had no limitations other than your own imagination. Do you remember how devastated you were when the tatty box was beyond repair/ your parents had had enough of a massive box taking over the living room and announced that the box was going to be ripped up and thrown out?

Personally I would rather save my money and keep it for when the kids are older and want to learn to drive, go to university or buy a house. I want to be able to say we had crazy amounts of free fun and because when you were little I didn’t spend money on plastic toys I can give you this money now.

When I ask my children what they want to do their answers are always the same. If we are going out it’s can we go to the park. If we are staying in it is can we play the shark game. This is where the sofa cushions are taken off of the sofa and laid on the floor. They become the islands and the aim of the game is to swim from one sofa to the other using the islands to help you without being caught and tickled to death by the shark. Another favourite is to do indoor sledging. This involves taking turns to sit on a tray whilst it is dragged around on the carpet. Even better if we set up an obstacle course that we have to navigate our way around. Another favourite is for mummy to ‘sleep’ on the floor while the children come as close as they dare and tap an poke until mummy wakes up and grabs whoever is nearest and tickles them. In fact any game that involves tickling is a win in our house.

Occasionally they will ask me to play with their toys with them but it will be the shop till or the doctors set or tea set. It is always a make believe game that involves my interaction. Never have my children ever asked me to play with the very expensive plastic toy presents that friends and family have felt the need to buy them.

So next time when someone asks you what the kids would like as a present tell them to give them an empty cardboard box and some money to put into a savings account for when they are older. This is a win win situation for everyone involved. The buyer will be happy in the knowledge that their contribution will enable the child to achieve something really worthwhile and meaningful such as buying their first home. The child will have more hours of enjoyment out of a box than they would have from a plastic toy. And selfishly my favourite is that your home doesn’t end up looking like a naff playgroup.

Of course the children will need some actual toys to play with but isn’t it nicer to make it a wooden durable one that will stand up to the abuse of a small child and better still can be passed onto another child to enjoy when your child has outgrown it?

Obviously a cardboard box will not go down well when they are 15 but for as long as possible I am not going to be pressured into buying expensive plastic toys for my children and instead will put the money in a savings account and enjoy making fun memories using free entertainment.

#spendingtimewithyourchild #Christmas #birthday #presents #time #interaction #howtointeractwithyourchild