About pre school and Santa letters ?

[Sassybeast]

This year, we are skint. I've deliberately played down the whole 'What santa is bringing ' with the kids simply because we are only getting them what we can afford and what they needs so clothes, books, a few games etc. (Disclaimer - they've got absolutely tonnes of toys so they're not deprived) It's just that due to circumstances, this year we aren't doing huge pressies.

Thought it was going well - when asked by little old ladies what Santa was bringing, littliest would trot out 'New jammies an books and a peppa pig game'

She comes out of pre school today absolutely hyper as she's been doing her 'list' for Santa which seems to have comprised going through the Argos catalogue and cutting out pictures of what she wants. Namely a pink camera, a car with a dog on the back, a pink bicycle with sparkles and a trampoline.

She's talked about nothing else all day - she's adamant that because she's done this letter and posted it in a special post box, then Santa will be bringing all the things

I have NO problem with saying no to my kids but I'm just a bit narked that pre school have taken it on themselves to fuel this blatant consumerism and my baby will be disappointed.

That's bloody lazy on the part of the nursery. I'd be really annoyed. If they want them to do cutting and sticking for Santa, there must be nicer ways, like giving them a few pictures to choose from ( not argos ones).
The Santa thing is all about the magic, not about the toys, especially at nursery age.
They should be making nice Christmas cards and advent calendars and talking about nice things that they can do for mummies/ daddies/ friends etc.
I'm sure their parents will have Christmas gifts worked out without the help of nursery

Write a message in a christmas card to them and list all the nice gift you were going to give them. Then say sorry, you can't afford it as you are now trying to meet your daughter's false expectations.

YANBU.

But don't complain. Cry. Cry a lot. Thinking of Lassie will help.

I know it's a bit manipulative but there are moments when being able to cry is a girl's best weapon.

If you complain, they will get defensive and say it was a bit of fun and how silly of you to get upset.

If you go in and cry about how much you love your daughter, how tight things are this year, how hard you had worked to manage expectations, how excited she now is, how much you can't afford the things she now thinks she's getting, how worried and upset you are about disappointing her...and then perhaps

"sob..do you have any extra shifts I could work at the nursery to earn the money to buy her these things...sob sob"

then I promise you will have achieved your objectives of

a) making them realise how unreasonable this was
b) ensuring they never do it again
and
c) making them feel rotten - sometimes it's right to share pain

I do appreciate this strategy may make it harder to hold your head up in January but otherwise it's a winner!

Well I've 'ad a word - and no I didn't cry I sort of jokingly said that DD had been talking about what Santa was bringing and I would need their help to teach her that a list of stuck on pictures didn't mean he'd definately bring it all. Cue lots of 'oh, right' yes ermmm oh ok' type comments. Am sure i'll be the talk of the staffroom

But you know what pisses me off most of alll ? - the fact that I spent all of last night inline seeing if I could find her a cheap pink camera (I failed miserably)

It was a silly thing for them to do.
Of all the creative, imaginative, fun cutting and sticking activities they can do at christmas time - why this?

Oh, if you seriously want to find a cheapo pink camera, try ebay for pink vivitar or technika they're only about £20 new - and second hand ones are often fine and come with any USB etc you might need.

YANBU, I think it was a really horrible activity. Well done for bringing it up with the nursery.

YANBU.

That is incredibly naff and lazy of the nursery. FFS they are trained childcare professionals, you'd think they had the brains to realise that
a) it will encourage unrealistic expectations
b) it is hideously consumerist
c) not all parents are going to be able to afford all that tat
d) not all families give gifts at Christmas

I would be hopping mad and I'd complain.

If they want to do cutting and sticking there are so many other ways - making cards, making stained windows from tissue paper, making winter scenes from magazine pictures for example (and I'm not even a childcare worker!).

We used to do this at home as kids, go through Argos catalogue and write list for parents so they could tell any relative who asked what they want. We were taught that Santa just brings the presents though (xmas day postman) and the relatives bought them, so parents would say "no, that's too expensive, look at things for x amount".
I think if you tell your kids a magic man with unlimited budget chooses xmas presents you're asking for trouble.
I wouldn't have been happy with nursery doing this and would have preferred kids to just cut out pictures and make xmas collage.

Sassybeast they have cheap pink cameras in the disney store, comes with a photo album, glitter pens a stickers to decorate they were reduced down to a tenner

by the way YANBU

YANBU

That is bloody awful. Just wrong on so many levels - like QOFE has listed.

There were so many other ways they could have managed that little activity with the children.

I am just that anyone with qualifications in childcare could not come up with anything better than this.

I mean its hardly rocket science is it.