It's Easter Sunday. Have your kids opened their Easter presents yet? 
Easter presents? Yes, some parents really do treat the spring holiday as a time to give gifts that go beyond the standard Easter baskets -- including pet rabbits or chicks, which, by the way, typically aren't a good idea.But the live animal issue aside, this raises a question: which holidays really do merit the giving of gifts and how do we, as parents, know when we're going too far?
I am chagrined to admit that I was raised in a present-focused family. Easter Sunday, for example, was treated like Christmas: Part Deux. Which kinda makes sense from a biblical perspective, but doesn't, really, as far as gifts go. Every year, I got up on that spring Sunday to find an Easter basket overflowing with chocolate bunnies and Reese's peanut butter eggs, but also other stuff -- trinkets, dolls and tiny toys. Then on top of that there were wrapped gifts, which contained more books and toys and albums (remember those?), the sorts of items one typically expects to receive on a birthday or during the holidays.
And it didn't stop with Easter. My parents gave gifts on Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, even the last day of school. To them, it was an expression of generosity. I had a stay-at-home mom who lived for her children and giving gifts, to her, was just one way to bring joy to our lives. In fairness, I don't think receiving all that stuff warped me in any way. That scenario was certainly better than the alternative: having a parent who forgets birthdays or doesn't share any tokens of affection. But I do think those traditions may have spoiled me a bit. At the least, all those gifts definitely resulted in a house that was filled-to-bursting with unnecessary objects, things that, in the end, my brother and I didn't really need and my mom and dad didn't have to give us to remind us we were loved.
With a two-year-old son, I'm still semi-new at all of this parenting stuff. But I'm trying to take a more tempered approach to present-giving. My childhood experience compels me -- wrongly or rightly -- to feel like I have to do something special on holidays, which is why I found myself at a Hallmark store on Saturday throwing together a small-scale Easter basket at the last minute.
I kept it very simple -- I purchased three objects total -- but I know that as my child gets older, the temptation to inflate that Easter basket or Christmas stocking or, um, celebratory Fourth of July receptacle will only get greater. Still, I'm determined to find some kind of middle ground between the extreme parent-with-presents model and the cheapstake Mom role. But given the precedent my parents set -- not to mention corporate America's insistence that every holiday is a reason to spend hundreds of dollars -- that's something that will require serious dedication on my part.
What about you? Did you give Easter presents this year? And do you ever find yourself fighting the urge to overgift?
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