As a divorced dad, I had Christmas with my 16 year old daughter tonight. She had only opened her second gift (an inexpensive perfume sampler) and had already proclaimed this the best Christmas ever. I'm proud of my daughter for enjoying our time together, and not rating Christmas solely on the gifts. However, I wonder about the video in this story. Does the problem lie with the child who's hopes were dashed? Was this child expecting too much to begin with? Are his parent(s) just sick jerks? One thing is for sure. This in no way represents Christmas, however you view it.
I'm not overly religious, but I have always found Linus' monologue in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" just about the best Christmas message ever broadcast over TV (aside from the Pope's midnight mass).
Your thoughts?
Well, it sounds like they were teaching him a lesson... The article says...
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A post says: “For all you thinking this is messed up, he sneaked a look at his gifts, so his family played a prank on him.
“He got the 360 a week later.”
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So, that’s what it appears happened. It’s not a bad idea, actually — to teach the kid a lesson that instead of looking to see what he’s “getting” (a “gimme attitude”), it perhaps taught him to be “thankful” — at the later time when he did get the gift...
He probably won’t do that again... LOL...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhO-OE931D4
Well I think it’s warped to have a Christmas “ruined” because you didn’t get the gift you wanted. That is not what Christmas is supposed to be about. I don’t remember having this sense of entitlement when I was growing up. When I was a kid, I appreciated whatever was under the Christmas tree that morning. Usually an Etch-A-Sketch or a pair of ice skates.
I remember one Christmas. All I wanted was a red Bicycle. My favorite uncle , Uncle Paulie Alfresco promised me he would buy it for me. I counted down the days till Christmas. Finally Christmas comes I wake up and go downstairs. I look under the tree, and what do I find?
Uncle Paulie, dead, shot in the back of the head with a .22.
Plus, no bicycle.
It was a very disapointing Christmas on many levels.
the only "problem" was that i had wrapped the box, underneath the wrapping, in many layers of duct tape.
initially, she became frustrated -but after a couple of minutes, boy was the tape flying in the air.
i won't tell you what the present was, but her reward was a heck of a lot better than some old blue jeans in a 360 box. (and she didn't have to wait a week either).
I would have been pissed that it wasn’t a PS3.
This family is clearly dysfunctional and warped.
Secondly, I don't buy the "he peeked at his presents, but don't worry, he got the X-Box a WEEK later."
That sounds like CYA spin after they realized how cruel they were to him, and moreover, wouldn't a decent mother and family have run upstairs and taken the real toy out of hiding once they saw what they did to him?
The mother is the size of a refrigerator, so I don't buy they "we can't afford" either.
Remember, these people are allowed to vote.
Now you all know why we are so screwed.
Merry Christmas.
I'm not to sure this wasn't one of those, “Lets get our 15 minutes” kinda thang
Pretty strange to say the least.
“I’m proud of my daughter for enjoying our time together, and not rating Christmas solely on the gifts.”
Yeah, it sounds like your daughter’s pretty smart. Personally, in recent years, the gifts would be disappointing if I cared that much about them... this year I got a DVD, some money, and a t-shirt that’s 2 sizes too big (I warn people not to try and buy me clothes, and even after I’ve said my size is ‘the smallest there is’ they still get them too big for some incomprehensible reason). But, for me, the fun is in family traditions, like letting our pryomaniac tendencies take over after the candlelight service at church, and having Christmas cookies, or staying up late watching campy sci-fi (that’s just me and my laptop, not the family), then hitting my sister with a pillow or stuffed animal when she tries to drag me out of bed at some ungodly hour of the morning, and having chocolate chip waffles with powdered sugar on top after opening presents...
LOL, I’ve been the victim of things like this before.
I’ve also done some of my own.
I once got a nice karaoke player for my wife for Christmas, but I knew if I wrapped it up and let her see it, she would guess what it was. Instead I put it in the storage room with a bow on it, and gift wrapped the storage room key in a computer disk box. I survived long enough to get her to notice the key inside (she hates computers)! ;>
There is an episode of Monk where Monk buys a present for a boys’ birthday party — a rock polisher. I bought my 8 year old a microscope and when he would ask what was in the package would say, “What if it’s a rock polisher?” He said he would like anything, because I gave it to him. BTW, he was ecstatic over the microscope. Just as the other children loved their presents.