That's not fair

How many times a day do we hear from our kids "that's not fair", or "sister/brother got to do it, why can't I"? At our house...more times than I'd like.

My response every time is life isn't fair. You wouldn't want to live your brother's life and he wouldn't want to live yours. (They love that response.)

One of the benefits of homeschooling is we get to teach our children that life isn't fair, and they shouldn't expect it to be. Along with learning styles being different in each child, they have different talents and interests. One child is great at story telling, another is great at cooking, and another is a great athlete. They'll all probably chase after different interests in their lives. They'll have different friends, different types of spouses, different income levels, etc. So getting the same thing all the time wouldn't be satisfying at all.

I'm glad we get to discuss this frequently and often at our house. No one will be getting the same gifts for Christmas this year. They are different people with different interests and wants. I didn't spend the same amount of money. A teenager often needs and wants more expensive things than a 9 year old. But they won't care, because we don't keep score.

Unwrapping gifts is an event at our house. We unwrap one at a time. We want to see what the other person got. We want to see their excitement. It is loud and there are a lot of 'uhhh's and Ahhs and Cool!'s". We hope the other person really got what they hoped for. We really love to see the smiles and hear the laughter.

May this year we understand that things aren't and shouldn't be fair, and we Bloom where we are planted and love the garden we are in.