Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Why Buy Expensive Toys?

A recent video e-mail doing the rounds bearing the above name, has a young baby going into hysterics at ripping up pieces of paper held presumably by its father.
As a father of three who all went through a similar stage, that scene resonated with me. I still remember our own first experience with this phenomenon with our first –born. I can’t actually remember what the gift was, but it was rather expensive in those days, and she liked it a little bit, but her favourite toy at the time was something else.
You see as well as buying her this new toy, I also bought myself a new lunch box, as my old plastic one was cracked at the hinge and no longer as effective for its proper purpose. So it was headed for the rubbish bin when "someone" claimed it for her latest toy and had it for quite some time till it eventually disappeared.
Now in this day and age, when there is more and more every day to spend our, less & less (It seems) money on, do we not sometimes need to revert back to the mind of these little ones and find real pleasure, not in the flash and fancy, but in the plain and simple things of Life.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I am not advocating buying yourself new things and given your old worn out ones away as gifts. Not at all. However I am suggesting that we don’t always have to break the budget or the bank, to get our loved ones (Big and small,) gifts. Often we could get them more simpler gifts, couldn’t we? Gifts that they may actually prefer over the more flashier, expensive, and less personal ones, hey?
What say you? Have you ever given it a thought? Put another way, how many gifts have you received that when you have guessed /realised was spent on it, had have wished that they had of just given you half that amount in cash, as you could have put it to better use?
This is what I am suggesting. Not so much spending less on your loved ones, but spending more wisely and effectively for them. Giving them what they really would appreciate, rather than what you think they would appreciate. What say you?

No comments: