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The Season of Comparison

First, let's ignore the fact that it has been 2 months since I have written. I have plans to write more, but honestly it has been on the back burner for a while now.

Now, on to our regularly scheduled topic: the season of comparison.

I see these questions (or different versions of them) every day and I have been seeing them for a couple weeks now: "How much do you spend on your child for the holidays?" and "How many gifts do you purchase for your child for the holidays?"

And every single time I see the answers, I see shocked reactions and people getting upset.

And I get it. I do. I have my own reasons for limiting both the amount of money spent and the amount of gifts my children receive. I won't elaborate on that because it honestly isn't important.

What is important is that you do what you want/need to do for your family!

Do you want to spend $1000 on each kid? Go for it! Do you want to limit the amount of toys that are brought into your house? Awesome! Do you want to skip gifts all together to take a trip? How cool is it that this is an option becoming more popular?

I mean, really, let's focus less on what others are doing and focus more on making the holidays a happy time for our own family.

I am not going to sit here and lie by saying that I don't get a little judgey when it comes to some of the responses to these questions. I mean, if I were in the financial position that some other people are (or at least pretend to be.....that's a whole other topic and probably not a post I will ever do), I may do things a little differently than I do now.

And that is one thing that we all really need to remember: not everyone is in the same financial or life situation that we are!

And you know what? That's okay. We are all unique and get to do things our own way. And that is what makes this world great; the fact that no one is telling us that we have to do exactly what our neighbor is doing at all times.

So to sum up this whole post: Focus less on what others are doing and focus on making the holidays a joyful time for your family. Also, remember that joy does not always require money. You do you and let others do what they are going to do. :)

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