Less is More

I was at my son's school picking him up early the day of his Halloween party. Of course there was the general chaos with children moving around in costume and from activity to activity. But what got my attention was the food table and an activity table.

The food table was covered with, of course, food. I remember seeing both fun foods and healthy foods: carrot sticks, grapes, apples, edamame, goldfish shaped crackers, puffed cheese balls, and pretzels. But there was even more food that I don't remember. One activity table where children were to decorate a ball of clay with beads and noodle and other do-dads was covered with a very large choice of decorations.

I don't believe that having more of everything than one could possibly use is necessary or particularly helpful. Many of us with access to resources over provide for our children. This does not help create a child that values what is, or a child that appreciates what is given. I don't believe that a child needs a 6 foot long buffet of food to make a party successful. I remember being quite happy with my one ghost shaped cookie and small (maybe 1/4 cup) container of ice cream at my school halloween party. The idea of a treat was what the excitement was about, not the actual treat. Especially as my peers and myself all came from families that had the resources to provide food and celebrate holidays on a regular basis. A craft project with too many choices does not necessarily encourage creativity or enhance results. It results in a mess. It is amazing the results 10 different children create when each are given a lump of clay and 3 or 4 types of do-dads to adorn it with.

I am embarrassed by the opulence of it all. These are children that are almost all from upper middle class homes or above. They have birthday and holiday parties regularly in their homes and are invited to parties regularly outside of school. These children have been exposed to restaurants, shopping malls and grocery stores where everything is available and displayed in very attractive settings. These are children that want for nothing, they have clothes, heat, food, vacations away from home, toys, books, large screen TVs, computers, parents with cars, and opportunities for all sorts of extra curricular lessons after school.

So how do we teach our children to appreciate what they have and learn to realize that not everyone has access to what they have, see and expect on a daily basis? How do we change their expectations? How do we teach them to slow down and really appreciate what they have? We could start by toning down parties and celebrations at school and even at home. We could put our resources into schools that may not have the parents with the ability to provide even the cookie for the Halloween party. We could package up our party paraphernalia and instead of using it for our children, pass it on to those who don't have enough for these extras. Instead of providing too much for our children, we could help others by taking nutritious foods to food banks, not just at holidays, but year round. There are many ways to "spread the wealth", lets' teach our children how it's done.