They opened their Chanukkah presents today...sigh

Or go, with the children, and donate the gifts to the local children's
hospital or the Marines Toys for Tots.




Silvasurfa wrote:

(chiam margalit) wrote in message
. com...
I should have known better. I'm kicking myself. I wrapped everything
and brought the presents downstairs from a locked room last night to
get ready for Chanukkah on Friday night. And today, when I got home
from work, several of the presents were torn. Not totally unwrapped
but torn enough so they could read the titles of the DVDs and see the
new CD Walkmans. GRRRRR. And then, on top of that, they lied to me
about who did it. DD tells me DS did it, and then when I say something
to him, he gets hysterical and swears up and down that he didn't do
it, she did. Hours later I get the truth out of them. Her idea (it's
ALWAYS her idea!), his execution on his presents, hers on her
presents.

Males have been saying it is her idea since that "don't touch" apple
got munched on.

Do what happened that first time... kick 'em out of paradise. Return
the technological stuff to the shop and give them books, jigsaw
puzzles, boardgames, craft supplies etc. Nothing quick, nothing easy,
nothing that doesn't involve expending effort if you want results. Up
to you if you want to point out the similarity with a certain
religious story.

I should have known better. I'm kicking myself. I wrapped everything
and brought the presents downstairs from a locked room last night to
get ready for Chanukkah on Friday night. And today, when I got home
from work, several of the presents were torn. Not totally unwrapped
but torn enough so they could read the titles of the DVDs and see the
new CD Walkmans. GRRRRR. And then, on top of that, they lied to me
about who did it. DD tells me DS did it, and then when I say something
to him, he gets hysterical and swears up and down that he didn't do
it, she did. Hours later I get the truth out of them. Her idea (it's
ALWAYS her idea!), his execution on his presents, hers on her
presents.

We've been though this before, and they KNOW the consequence, which is
that the presents they open get saved for their birthday...at the very
end of August. I've done this twice already. Evidentally, this isn't a
consequence that works. So maybe it's time for a new one. What would
you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?

Need an answer fast, Chanukkah begins tonight!

Marjorie

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
We've been though this before, and they KNOW the consequence, which is
that the presents they open get saved for their birthday...at the very
end of August. I've done this twice already. Evidentally, this isn't a
consequence that works. So maybe it's time for a new one. What would
you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?

Nothing. When we were little, my parents gave us the option of opening our
presents early because my brother was too anxious to wait. We did that at
first, but after awhile, it wasn't fun anymore because there was no surprise
for us on Christmas day. If they don't care to be surprised or not on the
day the presents are to be opened, then so be it. They will just know what
it is they're getting. You're the one who'd be disappointed because you
don't get to see their expressions, but then that's sort of your problem.
If it bothered me that much, I'd just hide the presents better or not bring
them home until the last minute or something.

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
I should have known better. I'm kicking myself. I wrapped everything
and brought the presents downstairs from a locked room last night to
get ready for Chanukkah on Friday night. And today, when I got home
from work, several of the presents were torn. Not totally unwrapped
but torn enough so they could read the titles of the DVDs and see the
new CD Walkmans. GRRRRR. And then, on top of that, they lied to me
about who did it. DD tells me DS did it, and then when I say something
to him, he gets hysterical and swears up and down that he didn't do
it, she did. Hours later I get the truth out of them. Her idea (it's
ALWAYS her idea!), his execution on his presents, hers on her
presents.

We've been though this before, and they KNOW the consequence, which is
that the presents they open get saved for their birthday...at the very
end of August. I've done this twice already. Evidentally, this isn't a
consequence that works. So maybe it's time for a new one. What would
you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?

Need an answer fast, Chanukkah begins tonight!

I don't have any answers for you but had to say that this reminds me of
myself when I was young. I used to find the hiding place for the Christmas
presents and then I would ruin it for my younger sister by showing her
everything that my parents bought. What a horrible sister I was! I make up
for it now though :-)

Nadene

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
| I should have known better. I'm kicking myself. I wrapped everything
| and brought the presents downstairs from a locked room last night to
| get ready for Chanukkah on Friday night. And today, when I got home
| from work, several of the presents were torn. Not totally unwrapped
| but torn enough so they could read the titles of the DVDs and see the
| new CD Walkmans. GRRRRR. And then, on top of that, they lied to me
| about who did it. DD tells me DS did it, and then when I say something
| to him, he gets hysterical and swears up and down that he didn't do
| it, she did. Hours later I get the truth out of them. Her idea (it's
| ALWAYS her idea!), his execution on his presents, hers on her
| presents.
|
| We've been though this before, and they KNOW the consequence, which is
| that the presents they open get saved for their birthday...at the very
| end of August. I've done this twice already. Evidentally, this isn't a
| consequence that works. So maybe it's time for a new one. What would
| you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?
|
| Need an answer fast, Chanukkah begins tonight!
|
| Marjorie

Several things pop to mind. But here are a couple ideas.


First. Try something sneaky for a few nights. Wrap several empty boxes. Just
for decoration, If these are opened, then the kids know they were fooled,
you still get the surprised looks when you want them to open the gifts. You
could also just leave the decoration wrapped boxes out and not bring the
real ones out until you are ready.

Also, you could try to "multi-wrap" your packages. It is time consuming, but
something I enjoy doing myself. They won't be able to just peak inside the
packages because there are so many layers.

For instance, I once bought Jarrod one of those HUGE body-hug pillows for
Christmas. I managed to step on it, squash it, roll all the air out of it,
and got it into a 9x9x9 inch box. I then wrapped that box. Then, i took that
box and placed it into a slightly larger box complete with newspaper as
packing material. I then wrapped that box. I then did this until there were
5 boxes total, and the largest box was 3x3x3 foot (or about that size) He
never would have guessed what was in the box that I originally wrapped it
in, but the unwrapping was a blast for us both because the boxes kept
getting smaller, and the end gift was HUGE (about 5 or 6 foot long about 1
1/2 foot wide and VERY thick "body hug" pillow)

I have also done this sort of thing for my grandfather who had bought my
grandmother a diamond ring for Christmas. It started in a ring sized box and
ended in a box almost the size of a washing machine. There were a total of
about 20 boxes total. But my grandmother had the best time anticipating the
whole thing lol.

switches "blabber" to off setting

--
LES!

To send me an email, please remove Your Hat
YourHatDaddie @ bonbon.net

chiam margalit wrote:

What would
you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?

No gelt? I'd tell them (since they're old enough to know the
difference), that next year, they're not getting any presents from you.
That's it. They've done it before, they did it again. You have the
power. I know it sucks, but doing the most drastic thing would prove
that you were serious. Or return the presents you just bought them, and
take them with you. That might be better, since it's an immediate
thing. No presents this year.

Focus on the story tonight, instead of the presents. You having latkes?
We are :-)

I'd be pretty mad. I think my mom would kill us if we had pulled that
one.
--
It's Tis Herself

"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
I should have known better. I'm kicking myself. I wrapped everything
and brought the presents downstairs from a locked room last night to
get ready for Chanukkah on Friday night. And today, when I got home
from work, several of the presents were torn. Not totally unwrapped
but torn enough so they could read the titles of the DVDs and see the
new CD Walkmans. GRRRRR.

Two issues. First, opening the presents. I think that since they had done
this before, not once, but twice, you were tempting fate. I know, in a
perfect world, you could trust them not to open the gifts, but this isn't a
perfect world.

I'm sure that my kids snooped over the years but I told them of the day that
I snooped, found out all my presents and then, not only was I disappointed
with no surprise on Christmas day, I was shocked when one of the gifts I'd
really been looking forward to, wasn't even for me. It was for one of my
sisters. Talk about a huge, huge let down. I never snooped again after that.

What's done is done. Now that you've said that theycan't have the gifts, you
may have to follow up on that, depending on the impact backing down would
have in terms of future discipline. But, I think that they should have them,
given out at the rate that you would have given them out if they hadn't done
this. Next year, you have two options. Don't bring the gifts downstairs
where they can be opened, or let them look and leave it be.

The second problem is the lying but - what 11 yr old doesn't lie when
they're caught doing something they knew they shouldn't do. I am not
condoning it, but I do expect it - it's their fight or flight response.

Now that my guys are older (12, 14 and 16), I've been putting some gifts
under the tree before Christmas as a tease. They love trying to figure out
what they are, I love teasing them about them. If they decide to peak, well,
that's their business.

Marijke, in snowy Montreal

"toypup" wrote in message news:K6wEb.599792$Fm2.547170@attbi_s04...
"chiam margalit" wrote in message
om...
We've been though this before, and they KNOW the consequence, which is
that the presents they open get saved for their birthday...at the very
end of August. I've done this twice already. Evidentally, this isn't a
consequence that works. So maybe it's time for a new one. What would
you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?

Nothing. When we were little, my parents gave us the option of opening our
presents early because my brother was too anxious to wait. We did that at
first, but after awhile, it wasn't fun anymore because there was no surprise
for us on Christmas day. If they don't care to be surprised or not on the
day the presents are to be opened, then so be it. They will just know what
it is they're getting. You're the one who'd be disappointed because you
don't get to see their expressions, but then that's sort of your problem.
If it bothered me that much, I'd just hide the presents better or not bring
them home until the last minute or something.

That happened once when I was a kid. I opened (a little) almost all
of my presents and blamed the cat or my baby sister. On Christmas, I
was disappointed because I knew what most of my gifts were. I never
did it again.

Renee

(chiam margalit) wrote in message . com...
I should have known better. I'm kicking myself. I wrapped everything
and brought the presents downstairs from a locked room last night to
get ready for Chanukkah on Friday night. And today, when I got home
from work, several of the presents were torn. Not totally unwrapped
but torn enough so they could read the titles of the DVDs and see the
new CD Walkmans. GRRRRR. And then, on top of that, they lied to me
about who did it. DD tells me DS did it, and then when I say something
to him, he gets hysterical and swears up and down that he didn't do
it, she did. Hours later I get the truth out of them. Her idea (it's
ALWAYS her idea!), his execution on his presents, hers on her
presents.

Males have been saying it is her idea since that "don't touch" apple
got munched on.

Do what happened that first time... kick 'em out of paradise. Return
the technological stuff to the shop and give them books, jigsaw
puzzles, boardgames, craft supplies etc. Nothing quick, nothing easy,
nothing that doesn't involve expending effort if you want results. Up
to you if you want to point out the similarity with a certain
religious story.

"Elana Kehoe" wrote in message
...
chiam margalit wrote:

What would
you do if your 11 year old twins pulled this stunt?

No gelt? I'd tell them (since they're old enough to know the
difference), that next year, they're not getting any presents from you.
That's it. They've done it before, they did it again. You have the
power. I know it sucks, but doing the most drastic thing would prove
that you were serious. Or return the presents you just bought them, and
take them with you. That might be better, since it's an immediate
thing. No presents this year.

Alternately, donate them to needy kids. I just heard about a campaign in
our area called "Donations for dreidels," attempting to get presents for
kids living below the poverty line. The head of the campaign says that the
response has been great, but they're still short gifts for older kids/teens.
It seems that whenever people donate toys, there is always a tendency to buy
for a little kid.

Marie

Focus on the story tonight, instead of the presents. You having latkes?
We are :-)

I'd be pretty mad. I think my mom would kill us if we had pulled that
one.
--
It's Tis Herself