Children giving to children

11.12.08

Children giving to children
 

by Nthabi Sibanda

If your house is anything like mine, then it is filled with toys, toys, and more toys! What’s worse is that my children don’t even play with half of them – not too surprising given that most are in storage bins and don’t see the light of day. So, armed with the spirit of giving and the need to declutter, I explained to my four year old that we have to give away some toys to children who don’t have any. She seemed to understand this and repeated it over the next couple of days. So one evening we started to tackle the task at hand. Once long-forgotten toys were unearthed, she started to renege on the agreement as she started to protest with “but I do play with it” and “but it’s mine!” But I was ruthless and continued separating the toys and allowed her to become distracted with one of the many random kiddies’ meals toys. When we were finally done, I was happy with her overall giving spirit (notwithstanding the moments of weakness) and I know it’ll be easier next time.

Now the small matter of where to deliver them to…my church, the toy libraries set up in townships (http://www.activelearninglibraries.org.za), Noah’s Foundation for orphans of AIDS (http://www.noahorphans.org.za)...there are so many worthy children’s charitable organizations in South Africa and really, the point is that it’s never too early to get our children into the habit of giving to children less fortunate.

Even if you don’t have your own kids, a lot of us have nieces and nephews who we buy for, so why not start the tradition of giving to other children with them?

Enjoy your festive!