The Right Stuff

This morning at school drop off one of the kids mum's told me how she had to get her son to rewrite his Christmas card to my daughter because he couldn't decide if he was saying 'to' or 'dear'. I laughed and responded, 'well I don't have a clue what my daughter wrote in the card because she wouldn't let me look at it'. Later my overthinking brain kicked in and I wondered if I came across as being a disinterested parent, leaving my daughter to her own devices like this.

I'm not really in to writing Christmas cards, but for my daughter they still have novelty. She's almost six and nearing the end of her first year of school, so writing in itself has still got novelty. Our Elf on the shelf isn't a spy for Santa, he helps us do the jobs to get ready for Christmas. So when he arrived this year he came via Big W with a packet of Christmas cards and a note to my daughter advising her to be generous to her friends. (There were also some Christmassy erasers but they seem to have mysteriously gone missing).

On the weekend she set herself up on the kitchen table and got to work. She got out her class photo to spell the names correctly and she was off. I wasn't allowed to read them, only to double check that she hadn't missed anybody. And to find her a suitable Christmas themed bag to carry them in.

Yesterday she excitedly delivered them to all her classmates (still sans Christmassy erasers). I was with one of the other mum's when her son got his, so I was able to sneak a look at one of the messages. "Dear Zac C. You must call me a name and it must start with a C".

I don't care if people judge me as being a disinterested parent for not overseeing the Christmas card messages. I don't think there's a right or a wrong way to write a Christmas card. Scratch that, I do think there's a right way - to write a message that means something to you, with the recipient in mind.