Our kids are just a teensy bit spoiled

It is has always been my firm belief that spoiled is a state of mind which can not be measured by how much you have but what you do with it and how you treat it that matters. I still believe this. Will my children share every single one of their belongings without being threatened or bargained with? Without hesitation. Can they handle being told no whenever we are wandering around some random retail shop? Absolutely, though I wouldn't claim they were exactly happy about it these are children not saints. I will also fully admit that they are not told no as often as they should be. Are my children expected to respect their possessions by not abusing or wasting them or by leaving them lying around? You betcha though I will also admit that no one accuse them of being neat freaks. So, do I think that by most other people's definition they would be qualified as spoiled? Probably. But in my opinion, just a touch. I have seen many, many children with far less who refuse to share, scream bloody murder at the whisper of the word no and are prone to demolishing every toy they have when unhappy with it's performance or simply inclined to do so but because they have fewer items to destroy society does not label them "spoiled." I disagree. Perhaps this post is in some weird way a opportunity to justify the latest toys my oldest and youngest have acquired. A local merchant who lives in the neighborhood needed to get rid of the last of his holiday stock and we were in a position to purchase them. In truth, I had planned to buy a new bedroom suite with the money and as I am often guilty of, I spent it on my children instead. Am I over compensating for the unabashedly selfish mother I had as a child who only took me to the mall with her so she had someone to carry her bags? Yup and I don't regret it one bit. You can bet your bottom dollar that M & C will be expected to earn the right to ride them by showing responsibility and taking care to ride them properly and with the appropriate safety precautions. They are equipped with remote kill switches and governors to control their maximum allowed speed. That last bit of information was for the benefit of the grandparents who are reading and shaking their heads at this decision... :-)

Clearly we need to school little man on watching the road, not the handle bars. After this picture was taken, I was so impressed by the way he handled on coming cars in both directions. He stopped immediately and threw it into reverse to make room for the approaching vehicles. You know T was proud!

No need to worry that my middle cutie was having jealousy issues, she has a spunky little pink & white dirt bike that daddy still needs to do some maintenance on and she prefers the quickness and maneuvering of the smaller 4 wheeler anyway.

These last three were obviously taken today when the temps dipped in to the forties instead of the gorgeous 80 we had yesterday!