Thursday, November 29, 2007

What to do when your kids see all their Christmas toys??

Crap. This must be one of those 'what comes around, goes around' moments. When I was a kid, I was....um...lets say a wee bit anxious about Christmas and what gifts I may or may not receive. As a result of my....inquisitive....nature, I may, (or may not - my mother might read this!) have seen a gift or 10 before said holiday. I have never seen any problem with this. I've grown up relatively normal and my parents have never looked particularly distraught.

Fast forward to yesterday.

I shopped like a crazy person on Black Friday for my boys. My husband lugged the loot in and after asking me where I thought they'd never look, stashed it all in the closet in his office. Since he is out of town, they were able to play down in the basement, where the office is, yesterday afternoon. My 7-year-old came upstairs and said "I have to tell you about something that happened in the basement." So I figured something broke and said "What'd you guys break?" and he said "Uh, nothing. But, uh, we were looking for the balls for that pool game and, uh, well, uh, we looked in the closet in Daddy's office." So I was clearly (a) only half listening, and (b) had totally forgotten about the stash so I say "Yeah, ok. Were they in there?" and little man's eyes got all wide and he says "No but there are all these bags in there! With toys in them!!" So I freak and say "No! No no no! No bags! What did you see!?? Tell me!!! WHAT? DID? YOU? SEE???" Ok, note to self: if you want your kid to be honest with you, do not freak and act like a total idiot and make it so damn obvious that you are upset. So he totally back peddles and says "Uh, well, nothing. I saw that it was toys so I didn't look. Not at one single thing! I closed the door!" Then my 4-year-old who can't keep anything to himself to save his life comes up and says "There are TOYS in the closet!!!!! TOYS!!!!!" Crap crap crap. Calm down. So I say, a bit more calm this time, "Ok guys. No big deal. Tell Mommy what you saw." So the big one says "Nothing. We closed the door." And gives his brother a look. My 4-year-old, trying to catch on, says "Well...uh...nothing." So I let it drop. Then about 2 or 3 hours later, my sweet baby who I can get anything out of says "Mommy, why are all those toys in the closet?" and I said "What toys did you see?" and he says, "Well, nothing but I'm really glad you bought that space ship because I always wanted that!" His brother groans and says "We didn't see anything! He probably just saw that through the bag!" So I say "What else did you see honey?" And he says "Oh, uh, well, that robot guy and that car...." My 7-year-old cuts him off "Q! He didn't see anything Mommy."
Crap.

3 comments:

Kimberly said...

Don't feel bad. I almost always found my toys, but knew enough to mostly keep quiet, and also that I had to wait until Christmas to play with them, which still made it special.
Luckily, we a 3 year old that doesn't know Santa or care too much about his excessive stuff, I have been walking around th ehouse finding unused things that I've ordered or were given as party favors and either wrapping them or saving for the stocking (first year we are doing stockings, since we are hosting family this year and they've demanded decorations).
Back to your issue...I believed in Santa for quite some time, and even though I found my toys, still believed. WHat bugged me more than anything though was that the Santa toys got wrapped in the same paper!!!!

renae said...

haha - great point Kimberly! I will be sure to wrap the stuff they found in different paper!!

Anonymous said...

How cute! Sounds like a children's story...Once Santa left a note for my daughter explaining something...how a gift would be arriving later or something...she wanted to know why he used my stationary.
Kids. They are so darn smart.