This post was written for inclusion in the Mindful Mama Carnival hosted by Becoming Crunchy and TouchstoneZ. This month our participants
have shared how they stay mindful during the holiday season. Please read to
the end to find a list of links to the other carnival
participants.
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| Give the gift of life this Christmas. |
My children also love toy catalogues. We get a few in the mail and the children love to look at the wonderful toys and images of children playing with new and exciting things. One catalogue we get, though, is different. Instead of advertising toys to buy, it advertises gifts we could give to children or families less fortunate than ours. World Vision offers gifts of life. A well for an African community. Four chickens to keep a family with food. An alpaca for an Andean family to make clothing and blankets. Fruit trees to help a family start an orchard. A bee hive to start a family business. A wood-conserving stove to protect children from the dangers of open fire cooking. You can even help impoverished families in your own country through World Vision.
Let's teach our children to help others and think outside the (well-wrapped) box.
This catalogue not only inspires the gift of giving in us, but it provides a unique opportunity to teach our children about helping others and thinking outside the (well-wrapped) box. We can create happiness within ourselves by helping create happiness in others. Watching my children pouring over this catalogue is a beautiful sight. Together, we can choose a gift that will change a family's life. We can set aside our own wants for a while and focus on the needs of others.
This Christmas, take a moment to think of things we can do for others less fortunate than ourselves. From the local food bank or animal shelter to the wide arms of charities like World Vision or World Wildlife Fund, there are many charities needing help right now. Our children already know how to receive. Let's teach them how to give. Follow us on Facebook to receive regular charity suggestions during the days before Christmas this year. ***
Visit The Mindful Mama Homepage to find out how you can participate in the next Mindful Mama Carnival!On Carnival day, please follow along on Twitter using the handy #MindMaCar hashtag. You can also subscribe to the Mindful Mama Twitter List and Mindful Mama Participant Feed.
Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:
- Enjoying Busy Times Moment by Moment Amy at Peace 4 Parents offers a handful of simple pointers to make the most of any busy season in your life.
- Staying A Mindful Mama During The Holiday Season Terri at Eco-Crazy Mom shares her thoughts on being a mindful mama, while keeping your sanity throughout the holiday season..
- Holiday Parenting: The Gift of Natural Play Moorea at MamaLady shares her holiday plan for mindfully spending time with children in her extended family.
- The ABC's of Mindful Parenting Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama provides a comprehensive list of Mindful Parenting Resultions for 2012. In addition, she briefly reviews her mindful parenting journey for this past year.
- The 123's of Mindful Parenting Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares part 3 of her Mindful Parenting series (Link will be live tomorrow, Dec 14).
- Mindful Mama Guest Post from Hybrid Rasta Mama Zoie at TouchstoneZ is honored to share Part 2 of Jennifer's series on staying Mindful for the Holidays.
- Saying No to Plastic Toys Nada at minimomist and her husband Michael, have certain rules when it comes to toys for their daughter Naomi. Here's how they deal with well-meaning gifts that don't quite work for their family.
- Can you LOVE WHAT IS at Christmas? with so many expectations and no many people's needs to accomodate, Patti at Jazzy Mama has decided to simply accept what can't be changed and love whatever happens.
- Minimal Temptation, Minimal Gifting Adrienne at Mommying My Way shares how not exposing herself to tempting purchases, as well as having fun family traditions, helps keep her Christmas list under control.
- Choice And Consequence In Conscious Mindfulness Luschka at Diary of a First Child shares her realisation that consciously monitoring our thoughts have a powerful effect on our lives, regardless of circumstances or influences.
- A Light in the Darkness Sylvia at MaMammalia writes about overcoming holiday blues through the miracle of motherhood.
- Nature-Inspired Christmas Tree Kerry at City Kids Homeschooling describes how she and her children discovered the beauty and simplicity of a nature-inspired holiday tree.
- Giving The Gift of Life Free Range Mama at My Healthy Green Family shares about teaching children how to look beyond the well-wrapped box and learn how to give. .
- Can a collection of moments be more than the whole? Tat at Mum in search asks how do you turn a holiday from hell into a series of beautiful moments?
- Flying Through the Holidays Jenn at Monkey Butt Junction discusses how a simple organizational plan has kept her holidays balanced.
- Celebrating Advent week to week Lauren at Hobo Mama finds that counting down weeks instead of days helps children with the long wait.
- 5 Ways to Stay Mindful This Holiday Season Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares ideas and photos that help her stay mindful throughout the holidays.
- Simplifying the Holidays Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children shares how simplifying the holidays has made them more special for her.
- Mindfully Managing the Mania Erica at ChildOrganics fights against "the gimmes" and shares strategies for staying balanced during a time of year when it's easy to overindulge.
- Six Ways to Enjoy the Holidays Without Losing Your Mindfulness Rachael at The Variegated Life shares tips on thinking less, planning less, doing less, and remembering.
- The Gift of Presence Darcel at The Mahogany Way explains how important it is to be present for and with her family during the Holidays.
- Mindfully meditating on celebrations Dionna at Code Name: Mama hosts this guest post from Child of the Nature Isle about desiring meaningful celebrations for the whole year.
- What Does It Really Mean? Staying Mindful Through the Holiday Season Kelly at Becoming Crunchy talks about how she stays in touch with what the holiday season means for her and her family, in spite of all the temptations to do otherwise!
I absolutely love your post. It reminded me that as a teen and young adult, living in Africa, I used to sponsor children in orphanages in Europe with my measly Rands. We did a lot of church related community work around South Africa, yet I now live in England where my pounds are still measly, but they convert to a lot in Africa, and yet I only sponsor charities in the UK. How odd. I used to sponsor African families, when I first moved here, and maybe it's time to do that again. Thanks so much for the prompt.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing with those Sears catalogs! Funny how my perception of materialism and desires has changed since I was a kid. Giving your children the opportunity to give life in this way is a way better gift than anything in those catalogs...for the recipients as well as your kids. Happy Holidays, indeed!
ReplyDeleteI love these ideas. An idea that I want to implement when my son is older is volunteering - I want him to find something he believes in and volunteer to help out. I learned a lot from my years of volunteer work and my only regret is that I didn't start it sooner. While that plan for my son will have to wait until he's a little older, something like this can certainly be implemented now while he's just a toddler. I love the idea of a tradition that he can grow with.
ReplyDeleteLovely post.
I have been thinking about ways to get my kids focused on charity and helping others-- especially during the holidays-- and this post was a good and very timely reminder...
ReplyDelete-Kerry @ City Kids Homeschooling
What a wonderful message! I made toys for a charity project earlier this year and I was explaining to my kids that the toys were not for them and they would go to kids who had lost all their toys to the floods. My children were shocked: 'These kids don't have any toys? Someone took them all away?' Kids have a lot of compassion and love to help given the opportunity.
ReplyDeleteI love the World Vision gift catalog! Just for myself, it makes it so much more "real" to get a sense of where the money is going. I love the idea of letting my kids help me pick things out. This year we bought presents for some low-income kids locally — at first, Mikko flipped out that he didn't get to keep them, but he came around. I wonder if he'd think he got to keep the cow or sheep? ;)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I remember the Sears Wishbook! I used to earmark nearly every page. My parents just nodded and then bought me whatever they felt like. Heh.
Thank you for participating in the Mindful Mama Carnival!
ReplyDeleteI think this is a wonderful reminder of the central message of giving during the holidays, My children and I often discuss the differences between families as they try to understand value, money, and not being able to purchase everything they want. They are beginning to empathize with what it must be like to do without.
Yes, I don't depress them, but I feel it is important my kids understand that it is important to help everyone.
Like Lauren mentioned, my kids don't understand why we won't get to keep the goats we purchased this year or why the kids who are getting the goats won't be coming by to share them. We're working on the geography part, too.
And, my kids asked Santa to bring them each a goat this year.
Thanks for your support everyone! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic idea to have children look at a World Vision catalog! Awesome post! I also looked through the Sears Wishbook every year growing up, and it is definitely a fond memory. My husband and I were just talking about Kiva earlier today and about starting a tradition to have Baby (and future baby) pick someone to help.
ReplyDelete