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Strollerderby
That’s It, We’re Canceling Christmas
The threat of Santa can only take you so far. You keep using him and using him, and come Christmas Eve, it’s over.
If your kids haven’t shaped up, what do you? If you’re hard core, you cancel Christmas.
Really.
So you can’t skip Dec. 25, but every parenting guide worth its salt warns you have to have follow through on all those threats. So again, what do you come Dec. 24 when brattiness has reached fever pitch and your threats are just about to sound hollow?
The Toronto Star relates the story of a dad who went outside, shot his rifle into the air, then returned to tell the kids he shot Santa. We’re not suggesting that.
But if your kids are that poorly behaved, who’s to say they deserve presents? Bring back that reason for the season, gather the family around for a big dinner and just skip the opening ceremoney. You can save the gifts for a day when you think they’re ready to appreciate them – and you.
There will be screaming. And kicking. And myriad examples of why they don’t deserve to be spoiled.
Or you could just bring on the gluttony and figure out another way to follow through tomorrow.
Have you ever been tempted to cancel a holiday?
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4 Comments
PlumbLucky commented on Dec 18 09 at 2:06 pmOoooh, not us, but a relative actually DID cancel Christmas. She returned everything. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! (And you know, knowing her two little brats, because they were complete, unadulterated little brats, I guess she was just reaping what she’d already sown…I can’t say I blame her. They’d been bratty little tyrants the entire year, to the point where she wasn’t being included in family functions becuase nobody wanted to deal with them or her)
Leigh commented on Dec 18 09 at 3:23 pm@PlumbLucky – But did it work? What was the aftermath?
Manjari commented on Dec 19 09 at 11:11 amWe never link behavior with Christmas. I hate the whole “naughty and nice” thing. We expect our kids to behave the way we’ve taught them to (and they mostly do), and we don’t connect it to presents.
PlumbLucky commented on Dec 21 09 at 3:38 pm@ Leigh – not that we expected much of an outcome other than the two boys would remain hellions and their mother a loon. She was attempting (poorly) to discipline out a problem that she could have handled 7 or 8 years ago at the time she pulled this cancelling Christmas stunt. Didn’t do a thing then. Right now? What can I say? We do not tell these charming little boys (now mid-teens) where we live because we do NOT need them on our doorstep, bringing the party/meth/drugs with them. Cancelling Christmas, in the scope of an overall lack of parenting on their mother’s part (she basically chased their father out of their life with an assist from the legal system. He’s no angel, but he really got the shaft) didn’t do a dinged thing.
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