Post b-day greed

hethr519

Ever since my son had his birthday, he has turned into spoiled mode and thinks he needs to get every toy he wants.  He is into transformers so there are thousands of different ones and he wants them all.  I told him he has to wait until x-mas and now he will not quit bugging me about making x-mas coming sooner.  Ugh, I can't deal with this another 3 months.  I'm not sure how to handle this.  We are not a big spending family and live pretty simple and on a budget.  

franciscaz

Maybe avoid the toy section for a while...  Out of sight, out of mind.  We do that sometimes when the little ones are acting up but I was thinking in your case it might stop all that wanting...

Also avoid the TV.  If the kids do watch it, it is always videos.  This way we don't deal with commercials. 

JoyousJulia

franciscaz:

Maybe avoid the toy section for a while...  Out of sight, out of mind.  We do that sometimes when the little ones are acting up but I was thinking in your case it might stop all that wanting...

Also avoid the TV.  If the kids do watch it, it is always videos.  This way we don't deal with commercials. 

Ditto. We don't watch a lot of TV, but when we do it's DVDs or Netflix. DS hardly ever sees ads. Also, if your DS watches a lot of Transformers, see if you can start removing it from the line up .

AZ_Erica

DS has been like this since his birthday too.  I simply tell him we will put it on his Christmas list.  I have also recently been telling him we need to go through his old toys and give some away, then he would be allowed to spend some of his money on a new toy.  We haven't done it yet, but if there was something that he truly wanted I would let him spend some of his money on it.

Pesky

Ditto pps about trying to avoid the triggers.  Also, I have taken to carrying a notepad in my purse so I say "oh, you want that for Christmas?  Let me write it down so we can put it in the letter to Santa."  That way, I can say if he mentions it again, that I already wrote it down so we won't forget but he needs to be good and wait for Santa to bring it.  I also distract with other holidays, like getting DD focused on Halloween and dressing up the house for Thanksgiving and such.  Finally, I stalk toy clearance sections at Target and Wal-Mart, etc.  If it is a great deal, I pick it up and then pull some of those toys to donate to our local childrens' hospital.  When DD talks about what she wants, I ask her what she thinks we should give some poor little sick boy or girl at the hospital to refocus her on giving.  She loves going to the hospital with me to donate the toys.

ecoppins

I have just one more idea to add to the good pp suggestions. When the "I wants" come out in our house, I add to it. "Ooooooo, I want a x, and a y and a z! Wouldn't you want a x?" Sometimes it is something silly like, "Oooooo me too! I want a pink flamingo and a castle with alligators that sing opera!" sometimes it is something that distracts from what it is, "Oooo! I want some chocolate cake. Do you like chocolate cake? Maybe we will make cupcakes..."

or I do the "Oh, yes a wand with a butterfly on it would be nice. Maybe if you are a good girl santa will bring you one."

sometimes I bust into the song "I want a hippopotamus for christmas"

I also often say, "well maybe for your next birthday you will get one"

We used to have the balloon issue at the grocery, (exacerbated by dh who gets them a balloon or a toy everytime they go out). Everytime dd1 would say she wanted a balloon I would say, "On your birthday we will come to the grocery and you can pick out any balloon you like." Then we look at the ballons and admire them and move on. Now when she sees a balloon she likes she asks me if she can have that one on her birthday and I say sure. Last year we really did go to the grocery and let her pick one out. Will do the same this year.

RHitch

My daughter is doing this too.  She actually had her teacher sing happy birthday to her in school on Thursday in hopes of getting some pretzels from her (lol).  I just tell her that birthdays are to celebrate life, not to receive gifts.  If she wants the Lord to bless her with more stuff, she has to behave well, obey her parents, and ask God for these things.  When he sees fit, he will give them to her.  I also tell her to be thankful for what she has.  Then, when she asks again (and she always does), I tell her not to ask me again or she will not get anything.  That usually does it.