The One Way We Splurge On Our Child

If you’re a parent, then I’m going to assume that you can relate to this next statement:

Parenting is the rockiest journey you’ll ever experience.

It doesn’t matter whether you got pregnant as planned, as a surprise, or after years of trying. It doesn’t matter if you gave birth to your own child, got a surrogate, fostered, or adopted.

No matter how parenthood happened, once you’re a parent, you instantly joined the ranks of mombies:

A sleep-deprived supermom who feeds on caffeine

and survives on sticky kisses and messy smiles.

Mombies are multi-taskers and suck it uppers.

And you know what’s amazing?

We wouldn’t trade it for anything.

You Want to Give Them The World

The instant your child is born, you want to give them the world. Whether it’s in the form of actual travel to see the world, or just all the toys, electronics, and books they could ever want, it’s only natural that you want the best for them.

But what if “stuff” or even travel isn’t the answer to giving them everything?

What if all the st you want to give your kid isn’t the answer? What if it’s something else?

Tweet This

After all, that stuff comes with a price tag, and whether you have the finances to make it happen or not….should you?

Our journey through parenthood has been quite a journey, and for a while, we got sucked up into the world of “buy her everything or she’ll miss out!”

Well, actually we bought her very little, but people (quite literally, anyone and everyone) gave us things. Boxes and bins of toys. More clothes than you could actually believe, and more “baby furniture” than will ever fit in her room.

And we didn’t say no.

She has outgrown most of this stuff

And of course, we’ve started to re-gift most of it to friends and family who are expecting.

As she gets older (she’s 2 now) the hand-me-downs have mostly stopped, which is both a blessing and a curse. We now buy her things occasionally, and we’re really trying to choose them selectively, based on longevity of use, educational value, and durability.

And we’re desperately trying not to get sucked into buying her every single thing she wants.

There is one way we splurge on our child, though.

Toys don’t last, but memories do, and time we spend together is what she will remember for the rest of her life, not what toys we bought her.

Which is why we’ve decided that professional photographs (and prints of those photographs) are something worth splurging on this year, and every year.

Photographs can be expensive – the good ones, at least – but we feel that they help to preserve memories, traditions, and quite frankly, I love remembering what we looked like at any given age.

To me, photographs represent everything that is amazing about family. When I look at them, they bring back memories, emotions, and renew my faith that life is good.

Our parenting philosophy may be very different from yours,

And believe me that’s perfectly ok!

We all have different parenting styles, philosophies, and even people who inspired the way that we parent. It’s what makes up our country filled with diverse opinions, views, and traditions.

We all have different parenting philosophies – and that’s ok.

Tweet This

So I’m curious, what is your parenting style? What splurges are worth it, and which ones aren’t? Any helpful tips you would like to share?

P.S. When you share this post on social media, you’ll get an entry into this months’ giveaways!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosures for more information.

Comments

Kelly says
January 13, 2016 at 6:22 am

I agree 100%! Professional photos a always worth the splurge!!
Cat@BudgetBlonde says
January 15, 2016 at 12:50 pm

We splurge on making memories with the kids. We don’t like to buy them a ton of “stuff” or toys either, but we like to take them places, and have new experiences with them instead.