Why do kids today seem to come with so much ‘stuff’? (I’m sure I didn’t have so many belongings when I was growing up – maybe my Mum and Dad would beg to differ?) Our house is full of it, from the four plastic water bottles, (plus the two extra ones for the basket at school and the three or four extra we have been given by other people at some time) and the six coloured Ikea plastic cups, plates and little bowls, to the coats, jackets, fleeces, jumpers, caps, pencils, pens, colouring books, stickers, glue, bags, toys, crazy bones (one of the crazes at the moment) notebooks, sunglasses, sunglasses cases....and the list goes on...and on. Don’t even get me started on the shoes, crocs, trainers, wellies, and other footwear, we could probably make a line from London to Newcastle if we were to lay them all out end to end! I know that we (as parents) are to blame, and while we try to limit the amount of things we buy for them, it just seems to be the culture these days. I guess you don’t want you kids to miss out in any way. Although, I’m glad to say we do hand things down when we can and we often have things handed down to us from friends, we also try to recycle things where ever possible. Also, we try to be careful about how much we buy for them.
So that brings me to my next point, where do you put it all? I guess being a family of six, all with our own bits and pieces; we are always going to be quite a full house! Today, Georgia lined up, in the hall, all the shoes she could find, she matched them all up into pairs and they stretched from one end of the hall to the other. When I walked past, it just made me think – Really? We’ve got that many shoes? (and she’d only put out a fraction of them) Maybe part of it is the cost of some things today. When we can buy Hannah and Georgia a pair of croc type shoes for £2.49, it is easy to think, yeah, they’d be great for the summer, let’s get them. Maybe there just wasn’t the amount of easily affordable gear around when I was growing up.
I know I’m not the only one who struggles with the amount of stuff and where to put it all issue. I was talking to a friend the other day who was saying the same thing and how when she would come to lay the table for lunch, she could barely even see the table under the paraphernalia of the latest activity!
So that brings me to my next point, where do you put it all? I guess being a family of six, all with our own bits and pieces; we are always going to be quite a full house! Today, Georgia lined up, in the hall, all the shoes she could find, she matched them all up into pairs and they stretched from one end of the hall to the other. When I walked past, it just made me think – Really? We’ve got that many shoes? (and she’d only put out a fraction of them) Maybe part of it is the cost of some things today. When we can buy Hannah and Georgia a pair of croc type shoes for £2.49, it is easy to think, yeah, they’d be great for the summer, let’s get them. Maybe there just wasn’t the amount of easily affordable gear around when I was growing up.
I know I’m not the only one who struggles with the amount of stuff and where to put it all issue. I was talking to a friend the other day who was saying the same thing and how when she would come to lay the table for lunch, she could barely even see the table under the paraphernalia of the latest activity!
Well, I’d better get back to it and take the next armful of stuff upstairs and try to find somewhere for it to go......
No comments:
Post a Comment