I ask the questions and I also answer them. It’s like talking to yourself, but in writing
If I ask a question and then answer it myself, does that mean I am impatient? No. It means I am either asking a rhetorical question, or trying to have a conversation with my sister.
Could I get ahead financially if Christmas didn’t exist?
I think we can all agree that Christmas has turned into a holiday for capitalism instead of that in which it was truly intended. The birth of Jesus Christ has taken a back seat for so long that you can hardly recognize the original purpose of Christmas. If I had to guess, I would say probably 3/4 of the people celebrating the birth of Jesus, don’t even show up for Christmas services at any church. It has evolved from the birth of a savior into a commercial holiday design to break us financially and boost the economy.
Gift giving has turned away from giving people gifts you want to give them to taking requests and getting into fights over said requests on Black Friday.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am all about boosting the economy and I value the concept of capitalism. However, we have all year to exercise our capitalistic ventures. So, I find it almost offensive to take a sacred date and twist it to become a commercial holiday. Christmas is starting to be a date to worship money. No better than Valentine’s Day. This is a travesty to everybody that died in the name of Christianity, which was a lot of people. In medieval terms, it would’ve been called an excessive butt load.
As I prepare the Christmas list to go shopping for six children, it becomes very clear that they have no earthly idea how much money I make or what kind of bills we have to pay each month. A PlayStation five, iPhone 12 and Gucci shoes are just the tip of the iceberg. The ratchet part of me wants to yell out cuss words and call them names. I hate to tell them, but they will probably be getting sweatsuits and I hope they are happy with that and understand how lucky they are for them to not be windbreakers from the nineties. Which I would have loved as a teenager, by the way.
Parents through no fault of their own, other than being big softies, fall to the manipulation that their children become prey if they are not dressed in the most expensive apparel. I hate to break it to them, but if one provides children with other things, such as a personality and a backbone, those things don’t matter. What kind of message are we sending our children that we buy things we can’t afford so they can fit in socially? We all want to give our children the things we didn’t have, but don’t do it! It does more harm than good, especially when in excess.
As someone who is legally an adult, I don’t care at all if my co-workers or anyone I know are wearing a brand shirt or not. I don’t care how much their shoes cost. I care if they smell good and are relatively clean. I did care, briefly, as a teenager and begged my parents for a leather bomber jacket and Duckhead pants. My parents said no. I survived and learned to live with, and appreciate, what they could afford to give me.
My Christmas as a kid consisted of my parents giving me one nice gift along with a few small ones, which was a whole lot better than the apple and the orange that my mother supposedly got every year. I’m still not sure that is totally true, but I heard about it every Christmas. For that reason and many others, I would never have asked my parents for anything that cost over $500. Actually, I would never ask them for anything that cost over $70.
Extremely high expectations are just another example of how we have coddled our children to the point that they are spoiled and materialistic. I’m not saying to boycott Christmas, because it’s a beautiful holiday. But we shouldn’t let the materialistic aspect of it stress us out to the point of not being able to enjoy it, which is what many parents do every year.
Children will not remember you for what you bought them for Christmas, but they will remember how often you were there for them when they needed you. Going without the items one wants encourages hard work and builds strong character. I have never met anyone with a strong character that was ashamed of having one, nor anyone who didn’t consider it a great trait.
The bottom line is, do what you can afford, give what you want to give, and not one iota more. Personally, providing me and my husband with a strong financial future, so I don’t live in my children’s backyard in a portable storage unit, is more important than purchasing the latest DaBaby sweatshirt for $80.00.
Christmas is a religious holiday and should be honored as such. If you are not religious, but choose to celebrate the holiday anyway, it should be about appreciation, love, gratitude, and giving from your heart. Not giving from a list of $1,000 requests.
Originally posted on Medium.com
Kylie’s Rants 