It’s a hard thing not to do. You want to give them everything they want or sometimes the things you wanted as a kid. You want to make them happy. It’s a powerful desire. But spoiling your kids has consequences. They aren’t pretty and you have only yourself to blame.
Living abroad alleviates some of the compulsion to buy stuff. You just cant. The newest hand held game system, not available for purchase in Argentina, the latest tennis shoes from Addidas, not sold here. A Mercedes SUV for a sixteenth birthday (yes that does happen in the States) will never happen because kids need to be 18 to drive here..ha!
That is not to say that my kids are deprived. Hardly. But sometimes they do have to wait and wish and want for something a lot longer than their contemporaries in the States. This is a good thing. And when their father shows up from the US with a big bag of marshmallows you would think that it was a Mercedes SUV.
Speaking of cars..We just got a new car, or actually new to us but a 5-year-old minivan. You would think it was a Mercedes SUV by the treatment it is getting from the family. It’s clean, no dents and the doors automatically open when you push a button. The kids had been talking about this new/old car non-stop for the weeks leading up to us taking possession of it. You would have thought we were going to Disney. It is refreshing to see them so satisfied with simply a car with operational cup holders and radio with speakers that function.
