A few months ago, we cleaned all the crap out of Zion’s room.

He was the first grandbaby and the first great-grandbaby (of his generation) on both sides of the family, so he receives an obscene amount of presents on holidays and birthdays.

We realized as he got older that he was just expecting this stuff, and he had no level of appreciation or respect for it. He didn’t have to take care of what he had, because another one would come along in a few months.

But you see, I’m not raising Paris Hilton over here, so this summer I sat down with him and had a long talk about “other children.”

Remember when your parents talked about all those starving African children? Well apparently that’s racist {who knew?}, so instead of starving African children, we talked about children whose parents can’t afford to buy them toys. We went through every single thing he had, and he made some choices about what was really important to him and what we could give to those children who didn’t have good toys to play with.

I thought maybe I had made a good impression.

I was mistaken.

Today we went to the Don Bosco Center to drop off our donation and adopt a family for Christmas. We had the following conversation:

Zion: Where we goin’, Mom?

Mom: To the Don Bosco Center.

Zion: What are we doing there?

Mom: Remember how we talked about how there are some kids whose parents can’t afford to buy them toys?

Zion: Yep. We gave them some of my cool toys.

Mom: Exactly. Well, you know how you have all kinds of presents under the tree at Christmas every year?

Zion: YEAH! Santa brings me all kinds of stuff!

Mom: Yep, Santa and Mommy and Daddy and Nonnie and Bo-ma and Joe-pa and Pops and Grandmommie and Ol’Ma and Ol’Pa and everyone else who gets you cool stuff – those kids don’t have all those people to get them Christmas presents. This place we’re going finds people like that, and we’re going to talk to them and help one of those families have a good Christmas.

Zion: What are we going to do for them?

Mom: Well, we’ll get them some Christmas presents and maybe help them get groceries so they can have a good dinner at Christmas. You know, like when we go to Ol’Ma’s and have turkey and mashed potatoes and stuff?

Zion: Ok, but I want the Christmas presents.

Mom: You’ll have presents, too, buddy.

Zion: Yeah, but I want theirs.

Mom: Then who will buy presents for them?

Zion: Santa will bring them presents.

Mom: But Santa can only do so much, little man. He needs help, too.

Zion: Not from my family.

Mom: Zion, what if you were one of those little boys who didn’t get any presents. Wouldn’t it make you happy if someone like us brought presents for your family?

Zion: Mom, I’m tellin’ you. Santa can handle this.

{remember what they say about lying? How even small lies can snowball, and you find yourself telling more lies to cover up for the first one?}

Mom: Zion, do you know that I have to pay money to Crown Center when I take you to see Santa?

Zion: How much money?

Mom: That isn’t important. What if I didn’t have enough money to take you to see Santa, and you couldn’t tell him what you wanted? Some of these boys and girls won’t even get to see him.

{here it is – BACKFIRE}

Zion: MOM! We have to get you to WORK! Who’s working right now at your work?

Mom: {kind of bewildered} Mr. James is there right now…

Zion: Ok. We need to go there now, and you need to work, and we need to tell Mr. James to pay you lots of money so WE CAN GO SEE SANTA.

Mom: Zion, seriously, buddy. I got this covered. We’re ok for Santa. I’m talking about the boys and girls who won’t get to see Santa. What about them?

Zion: I don’t know about them, Mom. But we can skip grocery shopping today. Let’s just get you to work, ok?

I’m going to reassess and visit this charitable giving thing next week. I’m exhausted today. But if anyone has any ideas about instilling this kind of thing in your children, I’d seriously appreciate the advice. And if you’re looking for something cool to do for Christmas this year, try this: