Santa’s A Bum!

Why is it that opposing parents always need to get one up on each other.  If I buy an iPod Nano for my daughter, my ex will by the iPod Touch just to upstage me. It really ticks me off and really is it necessary?

One Christmas, my ex and I shared our shopping lists for the kids. We usually talk about this and agree on a budget. Well, this particular Christmas, they were at Mom’s house and lo and behold don;t they get the SAME presents I had for them at my house? I get the estatic call from the kids wishing me a Merry Christmas and detailing all of their gifts from Santa.  What a bum–he knew what I had bought.  So now I need to run out the day after Christmas to exchange all the gifts–it was a gift card Christmas!

But it reaches out a lot further than that. Cars. I got a new one, she got a newer one with the navigation system. I take them away to a nice trip, and she books a similar one. It is always about keeping up with the Joneses.

But I really think the kids see through it all. I am one of those dads that is a friend as well as a parent and I will level with them and tell them the truth–it has served me well. But I think they see the oneupmanship from their mom and to be honest I am not sure it really matters. They know.

But they also know that both of us (their mother and I) love them unconditionally. I jsut hate to see the competition!  What about you?