Holiday Gifts For Kids: It's Just Not the Same

My friend and I went shopping for the kids the other day and came away oddly discouraged. The day before I'd gone to the local Game Stop and purchased some "DLC" (Downloadable Content) for Kid 2. Unfortunately he's back into 'shooter' games. I had the Steam cards in hand and I handed them to the clerk expecting him to note some code and then give the cards back. I figured I'd wrap the cards somehow. But all I got was a long receipt with some codes. I explained to the 20-something clerk that it would be hard to wrap a receipt and finally I wrangled two of the actual cards--so there would be something to wrap. The clerk was utterly puzzled by my need for something more tangible than a code to wrap and put under the tree. Finally he acquiesced in response to my plea of "it's a mom thing" and gave me the actual cards. He did this with an expression of contemptuous disbelief saying 'yeah, well that's one thing I'll never be, but whatever'. I presume he meant he'd never be a mother but in my head I responded "you mean 'empathetic'?" I spent lots of money and got some cards to wrap. Oh joy.

The next day my BFF and I were looking for a toy or game of some sort for her 10-year-old. We dropped into the Family Discount store which was filled with all kinds of goodies. Colorful puzzles, a plethora of 'make it yourself' kits for doing crochet projects, beading, paper-making, Nerf guns and board games--both the classics and some dubious newbies. And all of it was too young for our kids. All of it. I said "remember how much fun it was to buy toys for them when they were little?" I'd buy at least a dozen books for Kid 1, Lego and PlayMobil for Kid 2, clothes, miscellaneous wooden toys, doll clothes and even a doll or two one year.

Now, the boxes come from Amazon and the kids know what's in them because they ordered the gifts for themselves online.At my house, it's mostly receipts and clothes. Books are hopeless--she has read everything ever written by now. I still buy a toy of two just for nostalgia sake but I know that in a few weeks I'll toss them or give them to the kiddos across the street.

It's the same process across the board. I was thinking the other day about how years ago, people would say "those years just fly by" meaning just these years. Whenever people had said the same thing in years past, I'd think "they're not flying by for me, that's for sure." But now I see that at this point, their lives become so separate from ours that one loses track. My life is flying by--wrinkles sneak in each day, it's harder to slim down and there are all sorts of other negative things that pop up. Kid 1 told me the other day that she can't wait to move on to college. She has already chosen where she plans to go to college. For her, life is just a matter of going to classes during the week and then to design classes on Saturdays. Her life moves at a glacial pace compared to mine. Kid 2 is oblivious to everything but games and his social status at school. Who he lunches with, which girls greet him with hugs and coos about how 'cute he is'--this is what concerns him mainly. One day he asked me what it means that girls hug him. I kept a straight face and explained that it's because he's 'cute'. I wanted to add 'and tiny' but I didn't. I suppose in a year or so he won't be cute and tiny but for now we hug him whenever we can too.