And then their mommy learned…

My kids have always picked an angel off an angel tree at Christmas, either with me or one of their grandmother’s. They give things for kids through the church and never question why they’re doing it. It’s just something you do. You give back to others.

Last night I was looking through the angel tree list for the kids in our local school district and was talking about it with my oldest. My youngest, Meme, said she wanted to be an angel for her school. I told her that was very sweet but that all the kids at her school had already been adopted. She was angry with this, which surprised me. So, I explained that it was a good thing that all the kids had been adopted.

Then, she cocked her hand on her hip and asked if I had put her on that tree. This stumped me. She was not impressed when I told her that no she was not on the tree. Then it hit me. She thought the angel tree was a way for kids to get extra gifts at Christmas. I had to explain to her that the angel tree was for children who may not have a gift under the tree without the help of others. Then I took it a step farther and explained that while we weren’t rolling in the money we were lucky enough to be able to give the presents for others.

This conversation went on for awhile, but the whole time I was trying to figure out where we’d failed to explain why we did the angel tree. Do you think it’s because we assume they understand? Or do we just get into too big a hurry to think about it?