Spoiled?

Am I the only parent who wants to give her children everything under the sun?

I would like to think I'm not but sometimes due to the sheer volume of things I have in mind for them I think I may be! I have been obsessed lately with tree-houses and the idea of them both running around in the backyard on a cool fall evening playing up in their tree-house together...just being...brothers. 

When I was a kid my grandfather actually poured a concrete slab in the backyard and then built a playhouse on it [it was the closest thing I had to a tree-house, I grew up in South Florida...we have palm trees. I don't think any parent would trust the weight of a tree-house on a palm tree] and I loved it! I hope to one day be able to stay home with my kids [since we know there will definitely be more], handle they're sports, school projects, homework [until they get to high school...then that's Daddy's turf] and just provide them with the best possible childhood we can offer them. With tree-houses, birthday backyard scavenger hunts, fire pit for smore's, outdoor screen for movies and letting the boys set up camp for a night! These are just my backyard ideas! Don't even get me started on the indoor playroom that I would love to one day have for them...with built in book shelves, leggo wall for them to build on, painted accent chalk wall for them to write and draw pictures...

Oh. sorry. See the ideas are just spilling out of me!

Which brings me to this thought....
Does wanting to give your children the absolute best childhood also mean that you are knowingly spoiling them? Would that even be considered spoiling? If they don't directly ask for something and you give it to them just to make them happy...

I, by no means want to raise a spoiled child. But if you teach them to appreciate what they have and recognize that so many go without...does that make it okay? Probably not. But I don't really care if it does. One day we will have our cozy home that the boys will hopefully spend there entire childhood in...with tree lined streets, clean parks, a fun tree-house, toy-cluttered playroom, bunk-beds, sitting around the kitchen table playing "Go Fish", making brownies after dinner, building pillow forts in the living room, and so much more... 

Before kids, I never really gave much thought to the "American Dream" but in my mind this is what it would all be about [in picture form, of course].

Not like my usual posts...but just sometimes good to get your ideas out of your head and down typed on paper the computer screen...they may never happen like I have them pictured in my mind but that doesn't mean you stop thinking about it.