If I were a parent back in my mom's day, my kids would have never had Christmas toys. The idea of facing huge, aggressive crowds at toy stores each year and battling it out over the last Cabbage Patch Doll sounds like an absolute nightmare. Luckily, we can do all of our shopping online now — in our pajamas.
And according to the results of a survey at The Prowl, most parents feel exactly the same way I do and are refusing to leave the comfort of their homes in order to procure a Tickle-Me-Whoever. Just 24 percent of moms plan on doing all of their shopping in stores! Black Friday deals? Pssh, forget it — forward us coupon codes instead. And even though the average wait time on a holiday store line is 37 minutes — guess what? — the average time it takes me to click a button and then grab a snack is just under one minute.
I'm in line with most other moms who took the survey except for this finding: on average moms spend $224 per kid for the holidays.
Don't get me wrong: I would like to only spend $224 on my child at Christmas. We work hard for our money and it sometimes kills to see it wasted on a toy that our little one might outgrow in a matter of months. Is there anything worse than finding an $80 doll she wanted so badly shoved in the corner of her room like it's a dirty sock?
But I'm a realist here. Toys can be incredibly expensive and tend to become even more pricey as kids grow up and desire sophisticated technological devices or sporting equipment or what have you. I don't believe in getting our children everything their hearts desire, but I don't spoil my daughter at any time throughout the year. I enjoy seeing her eyes light up when she receives a gift she truly wants.
And the sad thing is the price for toys adds up quickly. Her rocking horse is $40. A scooter costs about $45. The doll house we've been thinking about getting her for six months is a whopping $330. I've surpassed the survey's "average" spending price on just three items. I could certainly stop there. But then three gifts doesn't seem like a lot, so we include little throw-ins — each of which costs about $15 to $20. And before you know it — we've totaled about $500.
It's wasteful. It's absurd. But it happens once a year and it's fun.
How much do you typically spend on your children during the holidays?
Image via ToysrUs.com
