Christmas is just around the corner; how you feeling – anxious, indifferent, excited?
Well, one toddler from Lancashire, UK, definitely shouldn’t be excited, as he will be getting no presents this year. Or any year for that matter.
His mum, 31-year-old Lisa Norman, has instead decided to start putting money towards a deposit on a house for the little fella.
Lisa said Christmas has become too commercial – though she also doesn’t get her two-year-old anything for his birthday.
She said: “You see these photos showing the huge amount of gifts people are buying their kids in the run-up to Christmas. There’s huge pressure on parents to buy children lots of presents, especially with social media.
“It is ridiculous. We’re not struggling financially but we thought the money could be used for other things. We don’t want to spoil him with stuff he doesn’t need, so we just get him nothing.”
Hmmm, doesn’t a deposit on a house fall under the ‘stuff he doesn’t need’ category? You know, being two n’ all?
But in all honesty, Neil is lucky to be here at all, after he was born prematurely and was expected to die within minutes. He is now a healthy young chap and Lisa admits they could have very easily gone the other way and bought him everything under the sun.
She said: “I think we’d just have ended up with a very spoilt child who thinks he’s entitled to everything.
“He’s never going to be spoiled with absolutely everything, I know that now.
“We don’t give in to him wanting something. I’m sure he’ll realise come school age that me and his dad don’t buy him presents.”
It may seem like Scroogey behaviour, but maybe Lisa is on to something. No doubt most millennials would happily trade in their boxes of Furbies and TV bloopers DVDs for a nice big, fat deposit on a house.
Then again, is it really necessary to get Neil nothing at all?
The parenting policy is in stark contrast to that of Emma Tapping, who buys her children hundreds of presents every year.
At the risk of sounding a bit Buddhist, maybe we should all just ignore Lisa and Emma’s extreme ways and stick to the middle way of moderation.
Merry moderate Christmas one and all.
