All I Want for Christmas

Yes, yes, yes. I know it has been 2 1/2 months since I last posted. I am a bad blogger. A lot has happened since October. I went to Rome for work (very cool), Thanksgiving has come and gone, Christmas has come and gone and it's now 2010. All I can say is: THANK GOD. 2009 was not a great year, despite the aforementioned trip to Rome, so here's hoping for a better year.

Christmas was wonderful. Money has been tight, but we always manage to enjoy the holidays without going overboard and we try really hard not to tell the kids when we can't afford things. Not things like I new car; I have no problem telling them we don't have enough money for that. They are still at the age when $25,000 sounds like all the money in the world. But when the want things like a new soccer ball because the old one is deflated and it's halfway in between paydays and I wonder if I have enough gas to make it to work and three bucks for a soccer ball is completely out of reach. I hate saying I can't afford it for that kind of stuff. But I digress...

One of the girls really wanted an iPod for Christmas. I mean, really, really wanted one. It was all she talked about. She wanted to have music to listen to on the airplane and when she goes to sleep. And I had no problem with that. The Shuffle models aren't terribly expensive and as long as I know what music she has on there, I didn't have an issue with giving her an iPod. Except there was one problem.

If you have an iPod or any other commercially made mp3 player, they usually come with headphones. I think when Apple designed the iPod, they modeled the headphones on the heads of the linebackers playing for the the Chicago Bears. The ear buds are enormous! They are like the size of my thumb and I can't even get the headphones that came with my iPod in my ears. They are just too big. No biggie, right? I just buy different headphones. Mine are these cool pink ones with squishy foamy things over the speaker, so they smush into my ear and gradually expand, and it's a perfect fit to my ear. That was my plan for the Christmas iPod. Then, BAM - problem! Several months ago, Apple changed the design of the iPod Shuffle so the volume control is on the headphones and not on the player. Sure, you can buy additional headphones, but not the cool smushy kind. Only their kind. And that's when the guilt set in.

Up to now, I haven't had a lot of mom guilt. Some, but not a lot. I don't feel guilty about requiring homework before tv and clean rooms before play dates. I don't feel guilty that my kids have chores, that they might get grounded if they get overly mouthy or that have to get shots at the doctor's office. All of that falls into the category of "I did it for their own good". But when your child wants something, you don't have any objection to them having it, and you can't get it for them, then a new kind of guilt creeps in. I know it certainly won't be the end of the world for her if she doesn't get and iPod for Christmas. But to not be able to get it for her because of the stupid headphones is just silly. What kind of mother am I? I searched the Internet looking for an older model, but they were selling for twice their original value (sorry, don't feel that guilty). No stores carried them. What's a mom to do?

In the end, I improvised. She got an iPod that looks exactly like Daddy's. Same color and everything (wink, wink). Plus a new pair of headphones with the cool ear buds. I won't be able to pull this trick again, but for now it's a good solution.

But if you work for Apple and you are reading this: Change the headphones on the Shuffle so the volume control isn't on the headphones, and make the ear buds smaller for heaven sakes. Not everyone in this world has an orifice in the ear the size of a nickel!

There.....guilt gone.