You will never guess what my 11 y/o dau did

lat night?
She went under the tree and opened every gift that had her name on it!!!
As I was putting bows on the packages and wrapping more, I noticed a tear on one of the packages. I didnot pay a lot of attention to it, but then I noticed all of the packages with her name on them were torn so that she could see what was in them...I am boiling mad, it is a good thing she is not here right now, because her behind would be grass and I would be the lawn mower!!!
Needless to say, she will not have a good christmas this year. All of the gifts that she opened will not be given to her. She is suppose to have a sleep over tomorrow night and then go to a christmas village on friday, that is out as well. Plus we were suppose to go to the movies on christmas to see Fat Albert, that is out as well. I am sooooooooooooooo MAD right now...
What is even worse, I had made plans for tomorrow night, and now I have to cancel them bec of her...right now I am not liking her very much...

Yikes...that was pretty rotten of her. But calm down and make the decisions when you aren't so angry. Tell her she spoiled the surprise and make her feel guilty or something. Don't let this ruin the holiday completely. :(

I would be horribly mad as well. My girls saw one of their presents in my closet that is too big to wrap, but they haven't said a word. LOL! I don't think they know that I know they saw it.

I am so sorry that she did that.

I agree, it was a lousy thing to do. BUT, instead of not giving her the gifts, I'd let her have them anyway. Pretend you know nothing, and see if she seems to feel guilty, or like Christmas isn't as much fun as usual for her.

I peeked in my mom's closet one year and saw a couple things I was getting. I faked being surprised, but the surprise was on me, when I realized that it's much more fun to truly be surprised than to know ahead of time. I never peeked again.

You can always talk to her after Christmas about the fact that you know she looked and see what she says. Don't let it ruin Christmas for everyone, yourself included.

Look, we've all been kids. Stop and think. The BEST punishment you can give her is to say nothing. Let her have to open those gifts on Christmas and pretend that she is surprised, let her go through the day seeing everyone else enjoying their presents. Everyone she opens is going to make the guilt she feels that much heavier.

I once accidentally found one of my gifts (I had a legitimate reason to go into a drawer where Mom hid it). It totally ruined my Christmas Day to know the surprise ahead of time.

It's not such a terrible crime that she succumbed to curiosity--have you never done something similar? Truly, you bought those gifts for her because you love her and want her to have a nice Christmas. Has that really changed just because she acted like a kid?

Remember that love, and please, don't do something in anger that you're going to regret for years to come. Give her the gifts, and let her learn by a real life example why we don't open our gifts ahead of time--it totally spoils the surprise.

While it wasn't right of her to open her gifts, I see this from a different angle. Obviously, the child is beside herself with anticipation and excitement. I'll bet she's out of her mind happy about some, if not all of her presents. I would not have the heart to take that away from her. The punishment you've got lined up seems very harsh to me for disobeying house rules regarding peeking. All she really did was ruin her own surprise. jmho.

When my sister was about your DD's age she and her best friend unwrapped ALL the Christmas presents under the tree & attempted to wrap them all back. Well, I bet you can guess I the type of re-wrapping job they must have done, LOL! Anyway the 2 moms decided that the punishment would be that they wouldn't receive their gifts for Christmas but would have to wait until their b-days. MY MOM followed through but my sister's best friend's mom caved in and gave her DD her Christmas gifts. My sister is in her 60s and still remembers this. She said that it cured her of any curiosty (sp?) over what she's getting for a gift.

Now I can understand that you're angry that your DD did this. But I'm thinking that maybe you should give some thought to making the punishment fit the crime. Instead of canceling all your plans (including making your whole family stay home from something fun, like the movie on Christmas Day) maybe just NOT getting those gifts until a later date (when's her b-day?) would better suit the crime. Why should you punish YOURSELF and YOUR WHOLE FAMILY for the wrong doing of your DD after all?

Perhaps rather than making it a punishment, you can make it a lesson.

Remove one or 2 of the gifts from under the tree. On Christmas, after she has opened the others, bring those out. Tell her that since she has deprived you of the joy of surprising her, the two of you will take these presents to the nearest hospital and give them to some child there.

That way, both you and she will get that special joy of giving, and she will learn something.

I personally would just let her have the gifts on Christmas and act like nothing happened. Trust me, she will understand when the suprise is ruined by her opening the gifts early. I did that when I was about 9. I never forgot that feeling when I opened the gifts and already knew what they were.

I wouldnt change my plans just to punish her either. Why should you be punished too??

HUGS!!!!!

Cole

I CONFESS I did the same thing when I was in 7-8 grade. I was so excited I couldn't stand it. First I was so thrilled. I knew! Then I had to fake surprise on Christmas. Everyone saw through me. Worst Christmas I can remember.

Pretend you don't know. She has ruined her own surprise. It is a learning experience. DON'T SHAME HER IN FRONT OF Friends. Please. That is cruel. That I NEVER recovered from.

Two of my boys did that one year. I didn't say amything, went ahead and wrapped everything . But Christmas morning wasn't amy fun for them. They never did even try to find their gifts after that. So don't make it too hard on yourself.

If it wasn't such a hassle, I would take them all back and get her completely different gifts! Then she would REALLY be surprised!

She peeked at her Christmas gifts.

You are grounding her from a sleepover, grounding her from a christmas trip, grounding the family from a movie, grounding yourself from an outing, taking away ALL her christmas gifts. Ruining christmas for the whole family.

Yikes, what are you going to do if she ever . . . shoplifts? gets a bad grade? sneaks out with a friend? stays out past curfew? eats for a snack what you plan for dinner?

It just seems really harsh to me.

Maybe you need a cup of tea.

I don't want to minimize this particularly, but I think you're letting your anger cloud your judgment a little bit. It wasn't a good thing to do, but I don't know that I would go so far as to ground her from the other activities because of this infraction. I think the punishments you are planning far outweigh the "crime".

I think also this will be a lesson for her, when she reopens the gifts and already knows what they are.
I am sorry this happened, but as others said, dont let this ruin your Christmas.
It will be a memory yes but let it memory that you will look on latter and laugh at.

I used to write on the back of the tags what each gift was as I would often forget what was in each package. I had no idea my girls caught on to that untill they were talking about it one day. I never again wrote on the back of the tags again, but it is a memory that we all laugh about. Did they seem surprised yep they did they never let on to me either.


Merry Christmas!!