[blparent] Putting a Christmas Tree up when you have a little one

Wed Sep 21 22:03:44 UTC 2011

I agree with teaching rather than guarding, or foregoing. Christmas is
one of my favorite times of the year even if it's cold outside; in fact,
it's the only enjoyable part of winter! LOL I love to decorate the
entire house for the holidays, so needless to say, we love Christmas
around here!

At 22 months, Pen is very curious and likes to investigate everything.
Last year, it was her first Christmas, and she was walking. We had a six
foot tall Christmas tree and decided to put it up as normal along with
all our other decorations.

We were married on New Year's of 2006, so my mom had given us tree
ornaments as a gift that year since most were on clearance. We had our
own, but the ornaments my mom gave us were plastic. They're real pretty
and actually look like glass, but are hard-to-break plastic. We used
these ornaments so Pen couldn't easily hurt herself if she grabbed one,
and so the dog, more of a concern than the baby, couldn't do damage or
hurt herself if she took off with one.

We do have a couple of glass ornaments like our first Christmas bulbs,
and an ornament we had made when our other dog passed; it's her paw
print with red ribbons. She loved sleeping under the Christmas tree when
she was alive; it was like a cave to her. So we like to honor her memory
by placing her paw print on the tree. These ornaments go high up where
Pen, and Nessa, the puppy, can't reach them.

Instead of those metal hooks, we used twist ties to attach the ornaments
to the tree. We found at a Hobby Lobby decorative twist ties with a gold
material covering it, and we just put it through the small hole on the
ornament that a hook typically went through then tied ornaments to the
branches. No sharp metal hooks for baby or puppy to get hurt with. We
let her help decorate the tree as well. The baby, not the dog!

After we finished decorating the tree and turned the lights and star on,
she exclaimed, "Ooooh!" Then proceeded to clap and giggle, and of
course, wanted to share the moment with the puppy, or Dog-dog, since Pen
still doesn't quite grasp that Dog-dog will eat any object in sight! LOL

>From that point on, when Pen went up to the tree, one of us joined her
and we talked about how pretty the tree was, but how we look and don't
touch pretties. She was allowed to stand in front of the tree to look,
and we even let her gently touch the ornaments, and if one fell down, we
let her pick it up and help attach it again. She really learned to treat
the tree with care. We'd catch her just standing in front of it like she
was mesmerized .

It didn't take much time, and at the end of the week, Pen didn't try to
disassemble the tree. She was very proud of the tree, and when visitors
came over, the first thing she did was make sure they noticed the tree.
Pen's very rambunctious, but she understood that the Christmas tree
wasn't a toy she could just do anything with. I know this year she'll be
even more invested in helping decorate for Christmas.

As mentioned before, I'm a bit of a perfectionist with OCD tendencies,
so messes and unorganized spaces create a little stress for me, and
toddlers bring messes and disorganization by the bucketful! I've
learned, though, that when I try to be patient and take the time, Pen
learns more. I try to let her help with as much as possible for a
toddler, and this does mean things can take more time this way, but not
only am I spending invaluable time with her, but she gains a sense of
pride, even as a toddler, as she learns to do things first-hand as
opposed to me doing everything even if it takes less time. Teaching
doesn't happen quickly, but I've found the results to be more satisfying
when we take the time to teach Pen, and allow her to experience. My
mom's a teacher, and I learned this lesson from her.

Trust me, she lately has taken to wanting to help fold towels, and my
husband isn't even allowed to help with this since he folds them wrong,
but Pen takes her work seriously. I tried to show her how I do it, but
if she didn't inheirit my perfectionism gene, she definitely inheirited
my stubborn, I'll-do-it-anyway-I-want gene! So the towels don't always
look the greatest in the linen closet, but she gets to help and feel a
sense of accomplishment. And it's pretty cute to watch her approach this
chore with serious intent! *smile*

Now, it's not always possible to let kids do, or help doing, things. We
have to consider safety and time management, but I think finding those
situations where you can allow kids to experience and teach them how to
do something, is important , and we should make a point to discover
these moments. Setting a Christmas tree up can be a perfect time to
supply this experience, and it's a great family bonding moment too. If
you have older kids, the younger ones can learn by observing what their
older siblings are doing. We try to have our nephew and nieces come over
to decorate for Christmas because it's a fun time and Pen gets to be
around other kids. We crank up the Christmas tunes, bake cookies and
decorate the tree. Oh, I should probably mention that when kids decorate
the tree, it tends to not always have ornaments evenly spaced, which,
again, for a perfectionist with OCD leanings, this can be a bit of a
pulse-racer, but hey, I'm blind, so who cares, right? Well, in the name
of Christmas and letting kids be kids, I keep it to myself! *smile* One
year, before Pen, our nephew and niece were helping, and all the
ornaments were kid-level on the tree except the ones my husband and I
had put on. Maybe the presentation isn't always award-winning, but at
least it's decorated with love. *giggle*

It really didn't take much time to teach Pen that the Christmas tree was
a pretty, and when she did touch it, we let her do so but with the
understanding that it wasn't a toy. At one-years-old, she got the
message- the message of Christmas, which is apparently, don't mess with
the Christmas tree! *smile* As adults, we think in terms of time and how
big a mess something will be, or simply what we're in the mood for, but
children need time to learn and explore and grow. Even if it does take a
few days or a couple of weeks, teaching them that Christmas trees aren't
toys is a simple way to begin instilling the concept that they can't
touch, or roughly touch, everything in sight. When we knew Pen was
looking at the tree, we'd join her to talk about it, pointing out what
we liked and how pretty it was. This child, who can't keep her mits off
of anything, learned to be reverant with the tree. It feels good knowing
there's at least one mess I don't have to worry about! *smile*

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 17
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:46:26 -0500
From: "Brandy W" <branlw at sbcglobal.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] putting a Christmas tree up when you have a
	little	one
Message-ID: <D03B28453EB54821BFD78F2965898A97 at Brandy>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=original

Put glass up high, durable down low, and begin teaching him. 20 months
is 
old enough to learn pretty just look no touching. I can't tell you how
many 
children in my care and children of friends who we thought the tree was 
going to be a complete disaster with and it was no problem.

Some people also put a short fence around the tree, but find that is
worse 
as the kids just want to get in the forbidden area. So teaching seems to
be 
better. I would not forgo the tree because of age.

Bran