Thread: Gifts
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Old 05-23-2008, 02:12 PM   #43
Clodfobble
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Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 20,012
Oh, definitely. She's not into material things much at all. And that's fine, we like to spend the time we have with them actually interacting with them, rather than sending them off to play with stuff by themselves. But she wants to like things--she has clearly and specifically expressed jealousy at how much her brother likes his toys. She doesn't want his toys, mind you, she wants something that she will like as much as he likes his Transformers. What we need to do long-term is help her accept that it's okay to just enjoy the things that make her happy, but she's still too competitive for that so far. She literally would not want a fun day out doing something if it means her brother will see her get no "things" for her birthday. Sibling rivalry does not even begin to describe it. To be honest, that's one of the subconscious reasons she's going to love the toaster that makes pictures--because she'll like it herself to a reasonable degree, but also because her brother will want pictures on his toast too, and she will be thrilled to allow him, because it will be an acknowledgement from him that this is a cool thing she has.

This whole dance we try to do backfired over Christmas, however: one of the things we got her was a little remote-control car, because A.) she liked the remote-control dragonfly so much, and B.) Minifob loved chasing the thing around in the store, so it would very much fit into her enjoyment of playing with him. She would have loved it, I know she would... except it turns out her younger brother already has the exact same toy in Houston. So she hated it.
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