Teaching kids not be wasteful.

[Meme2019]

I know it’s early to be thinking about Christmas. I wanna put a plan in motion to tell the grandparents.

My kids 5 and 8 are very wasteful, every year i agonise about what presents to buy them for Xmas, we buy educational toys and fun toys, their grandparent also send them tonnes of stuff. With a short of period of time they have broken almost all the toys, if there books, they are ripped. This year I want to teach the kids not to be wasteful, I don’t want to buy them presents, or we thinking one present for each of them. Am also thinking of taking them to a charity of some sort to donate Xmas presents to kids who wouldn’t normally have much for Xmas.

Has anyone else taken this approach? Any suggestions on charities?

I grew up with very little, so learned to look after everything my parents bought me because I knew we didn’t have much. It breaks my heart to watch how wasteful my
Kids are. Nothing lasts long in our house.

I talk to them about other children who don’t have everything they have, and talk to them about being grateful but I am not sure if they are took young to understand

Why are your children breaking their toys and ripping their books? This is the behaviour you need to address.

I think wasteful is possibly the wrong word here - they are being careless and disrespectful of their belongings.

I would set clear rules about how they treat their things and not give them anything new until they improve.

My dc are 6 and 8 and the 8yo is very careless. She has ASD so needs a lot of reminding and support to take care of her things. It is upsetting and wasteful so I get that.

I used to get fed up of my children’s lackadaisical approach to their toys.
I had bought a sack of building blocks from a charity shop. They loved them but never put them away, despite requests and nagging.
One day I threatened them with putting the blocks outside for the bin collection if they didn’t tidy them away. They didn’t tidy them away. So on the morning of bin day I put all of it into the sack , told my children that I had cleared them and that I was leaving them out for the refuse collectors. They didn’t believe me. I carried this threat through and told them that I’d put the sack out with the bins. They both sat in the window seat and stared. They thought it was a threat and that I’d retrieve the sack.
They both stared , aghast, when the bin lorry arrived . They both thought I’d run out and retrieve the sack. The sack was taken and they were so very stunned.
I feel bad about it now but they then knew that tidy up meant tidy up. All their toys were precious from then on.
I expect to be flamed for this. No worries.

It won't combat the lack of respect for their stuff, but maybe have grandparents and family buy gift experiences instead of toys? We get a lot of vouchers now which is great....we went to a trampoline park and the zoo last year. Doesn't have to be for you to take them, a day out with granny to the ..... Wherever floats their boat. #makingmemories and all that jazz.

A five year old and an eight year old rip books up? Really?!

Why are you allowing your dc to rip books and break toys?

Why are your children breaking their toys and ripping their books? This is the behaviour you need to address.

I agree. Unless you address the issue then they will likely break even the one present you are thinking of buying.

Seems a bit weird for 5 and 8 year olds to be destroying everything like that unless theres some kind of SEN you haven't mentioned?

You could buy only second hand gifts: less waste then.

My kids are rough with their toys, especially my 6 year old son. I have cut back how much they get, it hasn't made much difference though. I tend to get them experiences now.

I guess careless is the correct word here. They don't intentionally sit and rip books, it's perhaps the way they carelessly handle them that they rip.

I have friends give us old toys which are in prestige condition, they come to our house they last all of 5mins, bits will be missing.