Disney World: Happy Birthday

All six of us celebrated our birthday at Disney World.  No, none of us have a birthday in November.  At the beginning of the year we sat down with the children and told them we would like to go to Disney World as a family.  We told them that we had two options:  go in two or three years after Michael and I had saved all the funds or go at the end of this year if they were willing to help us save. 

Everyone wanted to go this year.  So, we agreed that none of us would have a birthday party this year and the funds would go to the Disney fund, all money we received for our birthdays and Christmas would go to the Disney fund, and Christmas would be smaller. 

At each child's birthday they received a gift from us, something they really wanted.  They also received a lanyard, ten Disney trading pins, a scrap book and an autograph book - all in preparation for our Disney trip.  Each child still had a family celebration for their birthday where they picked our dining location and I made each a birthday cake.  They were not deprived in any way.  But they did put all cash and checks happily in the Disney fund. 

Our goal with this was to help our kids learn that there are trade offs for things we want and to learn that sometimes delayed gratification is even better than immediate gratification.  We wanted them to be invested in this trip as it was a big time and money commitment.   We wanted them to really want to go.  And want to go bad enough to give something up to make it happen.  I think everyone learned a lot from this experience and I hope we do this again in the future.  Next time I hope to talk them into a cruise...

When we got to Disney one of the first things to go on the grocery list was a Birthday Cake since we were all celebrating. 
Jenn