Lucy's Christmas Wishes

In case you have a hard time reading 2nd Grader it says this:

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My Christmas wishes..
First is a Webkinz because it's fun to play with them.
Second is for everyone to be rich because then no one would lose their house!
Third I wish for the war to end because people die and we have to give our money to them and that is how people lose their houses. Then I would wish for an American Girl doll because I love playing with them.
Last I would wish for a cool new room so I can have more fun in my room.

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I happened to help in Lucy's classroom yesterday so I saw a couple of the other kids' Santa essays. The ones I saw read like you'd expect: I want an XBOX and a skateboard, etc.etc.

I wonder what Lucy's teacher must think of us right about now.



On a related note - last night Michael went to see Santa while Lucy and I were at Girl Scouts. When he sat on Santa's lap and was asked what he wanted for Christmas apparently his answer was: "A Nutcracker. So I can give it to my daddy."

I have NO idea where that one came from - we haven't been to a performance of the Nutcracker this year, and Jeff isn't a big walnut fan.. but, I'm sure Michael's answer was genuinely thought out because he's repeated it a few more times. ("..And, and I'm gonna open nuts up for Daddy!")

So, while I can't guess at where Michael's wish came from, I think I can explain Lucy's Christmas wish list...
This past summer we made a roadtrip to Chicago - just Lucy and mommy, to go to a baby shower for my oldest friend. (Oldest, as in - we've been friends for the longest time - not as in, she's old. 'Cause we're YOUNG, okay? Young and hip and ...ah hell, never mind.)

Lucy got bored with the games she'd packed and she's afraid to read in the car because she used to get car sick. So, she wanted my iPod. I had a bunch of saved up episodes of "This American Life" from NPR and she LOVED them. I think she listened to them all. At least one of them explained some of the foreign policy shortcomings of our country entering into the war in Iraq it's subsequent impact to our nation's fortunes. Tough stuff for a 2nd grader to comprehend - but she was digging it and asking me questions. I tried to explain in terms that were simple and not scary - but also realistic. We ARE a nation at war.

Flash forward to this winter. Whenever Lucy has asked for an expensive item we've explained that the economy is bad, and our jobs and standard of living are very precarious. Again - economic slowdown, inflation/deflation -- all tough concepts for a 7 year old to comprehend - so we tried to explain it gently in a way she'd understand.

She has Kit Kittredge® the American girl doll - and Kit is one of their historical dolls who lived during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Lucy has read the Kit historical fiction books and went to the Kit movie earlier this year, too. She understands a bit about that time - that people were losing their homes to bank foreclosures, many people lived with uncertainty about their jobs and money - and that there was also a farming calamity: the Dust Bowl.

We have tried to explain that the time we're living in is not quite as bad as during when Kit lived - certainly there's no dust bowl... but that no one knows how bad things are going to get just yet, or how many people will lose their jobs and it's time to be careful with the money that we earn from working as much as we can.

In the movie - one sign that a family was having hardship is that the mothers would start keeping chickens for the eggs and use the feedsacks to make dresses for the girls. I've explained to Lucy: "Look, we aren't keeping chickens yet, right? But, it's time to be careful so that we can continue to pay for our house."
Again, she seemed to understand, didn't seem overly anxious - and stopped whining for expensive new shirts from Justice for Girls or the latest DS game she's seen on TV, etc.

Apparently, when given a writing assignment at school, our soft-hearted daughter has put the "This American Life" episodes about the costs of the war in Iraq (and high costs of rebuilding the Iraqi infrastructure) together with her concerns about people losing their houses now.

And herein lies the difficult tight-rope-walk: We're not trying to make her anxious, just thoughtful and aware of the larger world around her.

While I think, on the one hand, it's good that she has things other than her own personal wants (XBOX, Guitar Hero..blah blah blah) on her mind.. we're going to have to be careful to not talk about news on the economic downturn or any of our money concerns in front of Luce..because she's a natural born worrier like her mother.

Perhaps when Santa still shows up with presents for her and her Christmas looks much like Christmases past her anxiety will ease up a bit.

In the meantime maybe it'll help if I say: "Don't worry honey. Look, we're not keeping chickens to sell the eggs yet."