DECEMBER 2019 GH 99
ex ert advi + un ro ects
or the who crew
family+pets
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
I HAVE A PICTURE FROM MY DAUGHTER’S SECOND CHRISTMAS THAT I CHERISH.
She’s sitting among poinsettias, in her Fair Isle holiday PJ’s, with what looks like just a few
carefully curated toys around her. It looks like a classic Christmas morning.
What you can’t see, just out of the frame, is the giant mountain of other toys her rela-
tives bought for her. My daughter is the first grandchild on both sides of our family, and
she has very generous grandparents (and aunts and uncles and acquaintances and well-
wishers). And every year when her birthday and the holidays roll around, I get a knot in
my stomach thinking about the amount of stuff she’ll get. I consider asking everyone
to tone it down, but I worry that if I do, I’ll be labeled a Grinch who’s ruining the fun of
being a grandparent.
As it turns out, I’m right to feel queasy about the quantity of gifts my daughter
gets — and not just because of a lack of storage space and organization in my home.
According to a study published last year in the journal Infant Behavior and Develop-
ment, an environment with fewer toys may be better for kids. The researchers studied
The Power
of Fewer
Presents
Mom Marisa LaScala
discovers why it’s
sometimes better to
be a Scrooge
S
to
c
k
s
y.