Party Loot Bags

When our children were small, at every birthday party there was an expectation that as each visitor left the party they would receive a ‘loot bag’. Typically that was a bag full of candy and dollar store items that sometimes added up to the same cost as the gift the child brought to the party for the birthday child!!

One day I received a rather frantic phone call from my neighbor who had just moved to Ontario from Alberta. Apparently, where she came from that

tradition did not take place and she had a couple of little departing (spoiled and rather outspoken) partiers that were not happy with her because she did not have any loot bags to give them.

Children need to be taught that any gift given to them is just that…a gift.

It never should be expected or whined and fussed about if not given. In a culture where ‘stuff’ is glorified and almost worshipped, it is our job as parents to frequently remind our children that “PEOPLE are more important that things”, and live in such a way ourselves that teaches them we really believe this.

This also applies as they grow up when it comes to teaching them about sex. They need to know that sex is something that is a gift given from one person to another-God’s plan being within marriage-not an expectation or something that ever should be demanded of your spouse or by pressuring another to ‘give me some’. If a young person is taught early to respect the sexual act and when it is talked about in the home it is with proper words and dignity attached to it, this will affect their attitude towards not only the act of sex but to the opposite sex as well!

Love,

Karen