Article by Kawaii, the ninja mom.
Of Germanic origin, the Advent calendar appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. At that time, Protestant families used to distribute pious images to their children to keep them waiting until Christmas. Ok thank you Wiki pedia.
In the 20th century, chocolates and toys dethroned pious images. Ok thanks marketing. But the objective remained the same, to make the children wait and teach them the concept of time passing. With such a virtuous objective, calendars have become parents' great friends. Yay! Even better than a vacation notebook these...
For a long time, I believed that my only struggle was to choose between calendars filled with sweets and those full of toys, between visiting the dentist or overflowing cupboards. But I was completely off base! Thank you Isa for opening my eyes and showing me the true path of wisdom. You don't have to choose between the chocolate calendar and the games calendar, between the sugar demon and the plastic demon. No. You need BOTH! TWO calendars for ONE child! Otherwise your child is moving out and going to live with your neighbor Isa who has understood everything.
Attention large families, plan a budget just for the calendars! But hey, it's for a good cause, eh? It's to teach them patience, so that they become responsible adults who don't demand everything or right away...
Faced with such a financial investment, I admit that I almost gave up on this sacrosanct educational objective. For a short moment, a very short moment, I thought about boycotting ALL Advent calendars (and also my neighbor Isa). I told my kids and guess what...
They started screaming. The cat got scared and climbed to the top of the 2 meter tree. Isa had to call the fire brigade. The cat scratched the firefighter. The fireman threw the cat into the dog's basket. The dog jumped on the cat, barking very loudly. The children opened the fridge door. The dog forgot the cat and jumped on the fridge or more precisely on the leg of lamb and the rest of the goat's cheese and zucchini quiche. The firefighters left complaining about having been disturbed for nothing and my dog vomited everywhere.
Of course, I did what any good mother should do in such circumstances: I scolded the dog and promised the children the biggest of all the biggest Advent calendars.
But I still managed to negotiate that this year, we would be the ones to prepare it. A huge calendar for the whole family! Armed with 24 squares of fabric, each of us had to hide a surprise, a drawing, a joke or a message.
I thought I had done a good job...until this morning, December 1st, when I opened my surprise and read the little message full of tenderness from my children: "Dear mom, thank you for preparing us a hot chocolate for us took him to bed with a new song playing.
Article Thank you @ Kawaii
Images Thank you @ Freepik