What Do Kids Really Need?

I used to stress at Christmas time!

Especially when things were tight financially, wondering how we’d be able to afford everything for the holidays while continuing to meet the usual bills.

Actually, I used to stress a lot of the time, all the time, from Christmas to Easter and beyond.

Of course, we’d always make it through, but that didn’t stop me from stressing.

What I have come to realize now is that it doesn’t matter what you give your children materially, it’s your love that they want, and love is spelled T.I.M.E., not t.h.i.n.g.s!

We gave our kids the best education that we could afford of course, and endeavored to teach them right from wrong, and to build a good spiritual foundation.

How well we did those things will only become apparent as time goes on.

All the hugs we gave, and the stories we told them, the time spent listening to them and just hanging out with them all helped to make them who they are today.

If I was to give anyone advice about what kids need today, it would be this:

Yes, they are going to want “stuff”.

As they get older they are going to want the latest gadgets. With our kids it was the newest phones, iPods and/or mp3s.

I remember as a boy I wanted bikes, cassette players and the latest music.

But what I really wanted, and enjoyed, was spending time with my folks, especially my Dad.

Knowing what I know now, if I had my own life over, I’d spend more time with them. And I’d spend more time with my own kids.

I watched “Back To The Future” the other night and thought how handy it would be to have Doc Brown’s DeLorean, and go back even just a few decades.

But time is not like money, once it runs out, you can’t make any more. It’s gone.

You only have them for a few years, and then they’re gone, building their own lives.

So what you need to give them now is your time. That’s what will help them grow into mature, well rounded adults.

And when you spend time with them, don’t share that time with the television, or your phone, or your computer, or the laundry or the dishes.

Those things will be there later.

All we have is time.. in a sense, our lives are based on it.

By sharing your time with your kids, you are sharing your life.

And you are showing them that they are more important than your phone, or Facebook, or your friends, or…