My Daughter Asked For Her Eid Gift...Here's What I Did!

 Preparing for Eid holidays is such an exciting time for our family; we go out shopping Eid clothes, gift picking, and enjoy tasting delicious sweets!

This year, our 6-year- old daughter asked for quite an expensive gift! This has opened the doors for discussions and negotiations between us and our little one.

So, we decided to make a deal; I told her that we would pay half price of the gift and she would need to collect the other half by giving up candy, chocolates, etc… and instead, to put that money in a jar and we will count them right before Eid. Yes, I agree, the gift one gets for Eid should be solely from parents. But we know our daughter so well, she still does not appreciate the value of money, and in a month time, the scooter -which was the gift she wanted- will end up being used at play dates only!

After two months, the time has come to open that jar, and while we were counting, I saw the sadness in her eyes, as the number she had saved wasn’t enough to complete her share! For me, I was totally satisfied and happy, because she finally understood the concept of “value for money”, which we have been trying to explain to her for so long!

I told her how proud we are! because she really worked hard those past two months to save up that amount of money! And was able to find out by herself the true worth of money, and to depend on herself to get what she really wanted by giving up on other unnecessary things in her life, and to force herself into a tight budget so she can afford her wants and desires.

Of course, we will be going on the weekend to buy her the new scooter!

I think what happened was a win – win scenario, where she enjoys playing with her self-earned new gift, while we celebrate our new achievement of getting our daughter to understand that money doesn’t come that easily, in addition to the advantage of cutting down on the confectionaries she usually has.

To all mothers and fathers out there, do you believe I handled the situation right from the start? Or do you believe that Eid is a special occasion of the year, where I should have just bought her that gift?

Source: 360Moms