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Not All Kids Love The Holidays

As parents, we shouldn’t pressure them to

Kim Fedyk
The Parenting Portal

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A child walks towards a lit and decorated Christmas tree
Photo by Thandy Yung on Unsplash

Mommy, what are we doing today?” My six-year-old asked me one Saturday morning in December.

“We have your soccer in the morning, then library, then a Christmas party at night.”

He looks up at me, with sad eyes. “Mommy,” he says. “Why do we always do so much? When can I rest?”

I looked at him in shock, completely taken aback. When I had been rushing around for the past two months trying to create special holiday memories for him, I never stopped to think how he was handling it.

I had just assumed he was excited and eager to do everything we had lined up for him.

But looking at his face now, I realized he was exhausted.

“Tomorrow, would you like a day to just do nothing?” I ask him. “We can stay in our pajamas and read books, watch TV, do crafts, or play board games all day.”

“Yes,” he screamed at me. “That would be wonderful!”

As I watched his exuberance over doing nothing, it got me thinking.

How much of what we do as parents over the holidays is truly for our children?

And how much is for what we think our children will enjoy? Are we too busy trying to create the ideal…

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