It's part of being a child, and wanting what we want, immediately, without any thought of the hearts of our parents who labored and perhaps went into debt for six months to buy us the monster Tonka truck and all the rest of the toys piled into a mound in front of us. I remember my mother working extra hours as a grocery store clerk during the Christmas season. It never really dawned on me why she did it, until much later. When our children react with disappointment, Kim and I have decided that we just can't let it go unchecked. It's not limited to Christmas, by any means.
Birthdays are the next in line, followed quite closely by ordinary, everyday sort of gift giving.
Since our children are still young, we've had experiences here and there of returning home with a surprise gift for one or all of them, only to be greeted by monstrous frowns and grumpy faces. Don't get me wrong-they love receiving gifts. But once in awhile, the sky comes falling down and they greet their carefully chosen gift with an upturned nose and a glower. They act that way because they don't know any better. It's normal, because they're just children.