Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Holiday Shop

This week I volunteered at holiday shop in my children's schools.  While serving the kids as they shopped for loved ones, I made some interesting observations. 

First among these was generosity.  The kids' lists had quite the variety of recipients whom they were anticipating blessing with a gift.  Beyond immediate family the lists included friends, babysitters, teachers, and even a dead cat!  'How cool', I thought, 'that our young people have such generious hearts for others.'

My second observation involved spending tactics.  The kids that I served worked pretty independently to stay within the budget they had.  I would regularly encounter blank stares as the kids were performing mental math to add up their purchases.  Others incorporated counting fingers, adding on paper, and one saavy shopper even brought her calculator along.  While It was wonderful to see the kids staying within their budget, I noticed that they were also determined to spend every single dime of the money they brought with them.  "Look, ma!  No change!"

Finally, I saw the face of today's American family.  One child was buying for "dad's girlfriend".  Another child brought in tags to buy gifts for two seperate holiday celebrations: one at mom's house and one at dad's house.  Two other encounters left me wondering about whether some young people today see fathers as a mere accessory in a family.  In the first instance, a parent volunteer was serving a child to try and brainstorm who to shop for.  The volunteer offered that the child could buy a gift for "Daddy".  The child responded that they were doing a test to find out who "Daddy" is.  A similar scenario occurred with me and a different child.  The child had tags for multiple people.  After shopping with her for mom I (without looking back through the tags) instinctively asked her what she wanted to buy for dad.  "Oh, dad's in there?" she inquired.  "I used to have a dad.  But he left.  Now I have another dad."  My heart broke in two.  I looked through her tags, now more than ever hoping to find "Dad" in the mix.  In the end, I had to turn to her and say, "I'm sorry, Honey.  Daddy isn't here."