Christmas Gifts
Find a Conversation
| Sun, 11-12-2006 - 1:59am |
I posted a couple times on this board when my dd was dx'd a couple years ago, but haven't posted recently. I'm hoping that you can give me some advice on Christmas gifts.
My four year old is obsessed with dogs. The main topic of conversation is about our real dog, imaginary dogs, stuffed animal dogs, and dogs in movies. This has always been the case, but has increased over the past couple months.
Should I avoid getting her any dog themed toys for Christmas? Last year I bought her a doll and a doll house. She really showed no interest in them at all. I don't want to buy her toys she won't play with. She does like some imagination toys such as play food, dishes, doll clothes, but always uses them to feed/dress her stuffed dogs.
Any thoughts?

Pages
My heart is with the buy the dogs/legos/cars crowd. Some people would give an arm and a leg to have their kid even playing with toys, to be at that level. My daughter didn't play with toys for a number of years. Now she is also crazy about dogs.
When my dh was a little boy, he was really into insects. He expanded his "hobby" to learn to build his own killing jar, mounting boards and built his own display boxes. He won state fair, over the adults. Today, he still likes insects, but now uses this passion in a way that marries his field in computers with his love of insects that makes him distinctive among his peers.
I think it's okay to tell them when to take a break, give her limits. Even NT kids would play video games for hours straight if mom and dad didn't moderate and they still buy them video games for Xmas. You know when she's getting too looped up in the obession more than anyone so you'd know when a good time was to intervene.
I feel badly for going against what the doctor says, to add to the confusion, but I guess my heart is of a mother's first. I want her to have some treasured childhood memories. I would rely on your powers of moderation.
Just to say that our favorite teacher these days is our horse riding instructor, who also trains horses and is ALSO a dog trainer and runs a kennel. She lives right by the stables, so she can always just run over for a lesson and she also owns 8 dogs and does animal rescue. She is an AMAZING instructor and person, so sweet and funny and warm. She says she just gets along alot better with animals than with most people. These are the only jobs she has and she seems to be getting by OK...
She and ds adore each other. And you should see him ride now! He's just starting to canter, and he loves riding, grooming, feeding the horses.
Sara
I also agree with letting her have dog stuff, with one caveat:
In the Lego thread, I don't remember if I
Pages