Tuesday, December 20, 2011

About how to please kids and Bad Decisions

Sometimes we tend to please our kids
We THINK we are doing the thing they mostly like
We ASSUME it IS what they will enjoy…
Well, sometimes we think wrong…

During my parenting years, it has happened several times
and too bad it is still happening
(hope this will stop someday and I will become emotionally smart enough to undertsand their needs and what would REALLY make their day)

The origin of this post is what has happened yesterday.

It was holiday, we were at home, ghadi playing with his cars…
After lunch, I insisted that i want to take him to a nearby mall where they were displaying real sizs Flash-Macqueen
Yes, the real car coming all the way from disney (that was was written in the Ad)
I KNEW he’ll be thrilled.
And above that, I convinced our neighbors to come with us so the it’ll b more fun for all kids!

As we saw the car, Ghadi was thrilled ...
for like 5 seconds…

No, thrilled is too much...
he was like standing there, looking at something new, but NO signs of excitement or fun or a WAW expression…
I was qeen to take a picture
He was unwilling to stand and rest…

And then it happened…

Behind the car
There was a full stand of Disney toys, with all kinds and all sizes of CARS characters, in huge boxes with remote controls!
Kids ran to the stand and Ghadi was standing there, seeing tens of Francesco and lightning Macqueen and other racing cars
And
Yes!
He simply wanted to have them all,
To open all boxes,
Play with all the cars…
and I discovered how naiive I was
And how easily we can be driven to just commercial attraction…
Ghadi isnn’t the kind of boy who likes to manipulate cars from distance… he loves rolling cars with his own hands…
And from my experience with cars with remote control,  I knew that buying him such expensive one is meaningless, it’ll only last few minutes before he starts rolling it with his hands
As he had done in many cases before…
Besides, I felt angry at Disney because this stand shoudn’t be there at first place…
I mean many people came to this public place to show their kids the real-size car with no intention to spend money or to put their kids in front of such seducing stand! It was there just to force parents to get a car any kid wouldn’t resist!
 So,  It took me a HUGE effort to convince him not to buy one
And another huge effort to convince him to go back home…
On the way back, Y.B insisted Ghadi should come play with him in his house…
I agreed… and their laughs was filling the house in no time…
And I looked at them and saw how happy they were …without Huge cars, or the Mall frustrations, or the temptation of expensive toys… or all those “NOs” and “PLEASE HOLD MY HAND”s and “DON’T RUN AWAY”s and all other expressions I had to repeat 100 times whenever I go to the mall with ghadi!

And I realized I should be smarter in the future and do the things he would REALLY appreciate and enjoy…
 

after one hour playing at our neighbor's house,
again,
one last HUGE effort to convince him to go back home… 
***end of a combo-frustrating-Macqueen-ish-day***

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