While material gifts are fun to buy, the kids talk about their experiences WAY more than they actually play with any toys or electronics that they might get for the holiday.
I saw this post from "Katie" a blogger on Wellness Mama, and she does a good job of summarizing why this is a great idea too. Here is a quick look at some of the areas she brings to light in her post called 46 Ways to Give Experiences Instead of Stuff This Year."
-- Quote By: Instructor Chris Higdon
Image: Master Jared E Circle and his Daughter Breaking Boards
46
Ways to Give Experiences Instead of Stuff This Year
As we near the time of the year often dedicated to gift giving,
I can’t help but think about the fact that often these well intentioned gifts
eventually lead to more stress, for the giver and the receiver. In our family,
we’ve chosen to give experiences instead of material gifts most of the time and
the results have been amazing.
Don’t get me wrong… I love giving gifts
and always enjoy finding, wrapping and giving the perfect gift to a family
member or friend. As a mom, I also dread the aftermath of gifts… the paper all
over the floor, the toys all over the floor, the lingering messes and the kids
complaining about having to clean up their toys.
Also, as every parent has inevitably
experienced at some point, the joy
of material gifts fades quickly and even the most anticipated
Christmas toys soon become a chore to clean up.
Are We Drowning in Too
Much Stuff?
The dramatic success of the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying
Up provides a hint that perhaps many of us feel that we simply
have too much stuff (short summary of the book= throw most of it away).
Turns out, we probably do!
Think for a second about your grandparents
home when you were growing up. If it was anything like mine, it was probably a
small house with even smaller closets. And the closets were not that full. And
they raised six kids in that house! They also didn’t need drastic storage and
organizing solutions or extra storage rental units.
Fast forward to present day, when the LA Times
reports that the average American home has over 300,000 items in it and there
are over 50,000 storage facilities nationwide (and this is the fastest
growing real estate segment!). In fact, at least 1 in 10 of us have a storage
unit to store our excess stuff. Consider this:
The United States has
upward of 50,000 storage facilities, more than five times the number of
Starbucks. Currently, there is 7.3 square feet of self storage space for every
man, woman and child in the nation. Thus, it is physically possible that every
American could stand—all at the same time—under the total canopy of self
storage roofing! (source)
Do we really have so much more stuff than
people did just two generations ago?
Yes we do…
More Clothes
Our grandparents had an average of nine
outfits, including dress clothes and work clothes.
Now, we have an average of 30, plus a lot of
extra clothes that don’t qualify as an “outfit.”
The AVERAGE family spends $1,700 on clothes
annually while giving or throwing away over 200 pounds of clothes per year.
More Toys
This is the part that really shocked me…
The average child in the developed world owns
over 200 toys but only plays with 12 of them on average per day!
Even crazier? Only 3% of the world’s children
live in the US, but they own 40+% of the world’s toys!
If it Makes You Happy…
Those staggering statistics about how much
stuff we all own wouldn’t worry me if it seemed that the excess
stuff improved our lives in some way or made us happier, healthier or
closer to our children… but that isn’t the case. To quote Sheryl Crow:
If it makes you happy
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad
It can’t be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad
We have and consume twice as many material
goods than we collectively did 50 years ago, but statistically we are much less
happy.
54% of us report being overwhelmed with
clutter and 78% of us have no idea how to overcome it!
This also leads to additional stress:
Over the course of our
lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for
misplaced items. The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or
198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list. (source)
Certainly, there is much more to why we are
less happy than we used to be than just the excess clutter, but statistically,
it is a contributor, and an easy one to address.
Why Give Experiences
Not Stuff?
Many studies have shown that
material possessions do not equal happiness and that experiences are much
more intrinsically fulfilling that things. (Additional bonus: you don’t
have to find a place to store experiences except in your heart, memory, and
maybe on some pictures!)
A researcher named Thomas Gilovich at Cornell
University has spent more than a decade trying to understand why experiences
have the ability to contribute to happiness so much more than material
purchases. Along with another researcher, Matthew Killingsworth, he recently
published his research in the Journal of Psychological Science showing that
experiences provide more lasting happiness than material possessions. (source)
The basic conclusion was that people tend to
get less happier with material purchases over time, and more happy with
experiences. They speculate that this is because we adapt to physical things,
so even the nicest car or newest phone becomes commonplace after enough
time, while memories tend to get fonder over time.
Our experiences are a
bigger part of ourselves than our material goods,” says Gilovich. “You can
really like your material stuff. You can even think that part of your identity
is connected to those things, but nonetheless they remain separate from you. In
contrast, your experiences really are part of you. We are the sum total of our
experiences. (source)
Even negative experiences, they found, can
often be remembered fondly as a funny story or bonding experience. Experiences
are also a uniting factor. You are more likely to bond with someone who enjoys
the same hobby/activity or has traveled to the same places that you have than
with someone who has a similar possession.
The anticipation leading up to a trip, event,
or experience even has the potential to provide happiness itself, making it the
gift that truly keeps on giving! Happiness in the anticipation, happiness
during the experience and happiness in the memories.
Beats the heck out of a pile of toys that you
trip over while tucking the kids in at night!
It turns out that Aristotle had it right all
those years ago: “men fancy that external goods are the cause of happiness
(but) leisure of itself gives pleasure and happiness and enjoyment in life.”
Give Experiences: The
Importance for Kids
As important as shared experiences are for
adults, they are even more important for children and for healthy psychological
development. In fact, shared family time (even in simple things like family
dinner together) is drastically important for a child’s well being (much more
important than the dozens of extra curricular activities we often neglect
family time for).
Shared family time and experiences have been
linked to:
·
Bonding within the
family
·
Fewer behavioral
problems in children
·
A stronger sense of
identity
·
A sense of security
for children
·
Higher rates of
academic success
·
Lower rates of
violence
Of course, these shared experiences can be as
simple as time spent together during/preparing meals, while driving, or reading
stories before bed, but prioritizing shared experiences as gifts helps reduce
unwanted material items and fosters family bonding.
Reference: Katie - Wellness Mama Updated: August 2, 2017 https://wellnessmama.com/62144/give-experiences/
When deciding what experiences might be awesome for your child this year, consider enrolling them in a Martial Art Program. It's a gift that keeps on giving all year round.
Visit our website or contact us if you would like to learn more about how to make this an AWESOME gift this holiday season.
Koguryo Martial Arts Academy
6015 S Sunbury Rd, Westerville, OH
614-899-9033
www.koguryoma.com
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