“I want I want” in a “can’t have it” economy

I am about to send out the invites for our four-year-old’s birthday party next month. Christmas is just a few weeks later. Every mailbox brings a stack of catalogs. Every TV show is already embedded with dozens of toy commercials. Not even Ace of Cakes is sacred anymore.

We’re weeks away and the onslaught of “I wants” is almost more than I can handle. We’ve held her at bay with “we’ll put it on your list.” and “You can ask Santa.” We’ve let her practice her writing and drawing and scissor-skills by circling, cutting and pasting desired objets d’fun onto constuction paper. But, in this economy, we, like other families, are scaling back.

How do we tell the resident princess that Santa’s sleigh will be a little lighter this year?
Alina Tungend from the New York Times filed a story last week about breaking bad financial news to your child. Most of the advice she gathered points to an honest, but age-appropriate approach.

While we are very fortunate to be relatively financially secure, we know how tenuous life can be. All it takes is an unexpected layoff, a medical crisis, or a bad accident to go from good luck to dire straits. We’re trying to manage our little Boo’s expectations and instill nonmaterialistic values in her along the way. After all, some of the best toys are the simplest and it’s not the toy that matters, it’s all about the imagination.