Because Christmas is all about judging and condemning dontcha know...

It's my turn to rant.

I've had it.

Absolutely had it with certain members of our (mine and my husband's) family. These members shall remain nameless for the sake of feelings but I've SO HAD IT!!!!

Just before Christmas last year I sent out an email to family members. You can read about this email in THIS post. I blogged about this idea to maybe inspire others to do the same. I urge you to go read it or this post will make no sense.

Go on.....I'll wait.......

K.....

So, we thought this idea was a fantastic way of restoring the Christmas spirit in our hearts, teaching our children a lesson in the giving spirit of Christmas, helping a family in need, and giving some children a wonderful Christmas that they otherwise would not have. It's a win/win situation.

So, in response to that email that was sent out.....One family member agreed. Another family member agreed but sent a 2,000 word email back to me with stipulations, requests, and requirements if they were to participate. And the last family member flat out refused to participate and had a full blown temper tantrum and refused to open a gift we purchased for said family member and asked if we'd like the gift to be returned to the company it came from because "you made it perfectly clear in the first paragraph of your email that it's too much trouble to purchase a gift for me." Yeah, this is an adult. An adult who's stomping their feet and "hmph"ing with their arms crossed because we suggested that a family in NEED get the gift that they were suppose to get.

Grow the fuck up!

Kinda left a sour taste in my mouth. But whatever.

So I've been exchanging phone calls with Volunteers of America these last couple weeks in the hopes of finding a family to sponsor for Christmas. Ideally, I would have liked to find a family that was in need for reasons that were out of their control. The economy sucks. People are losing jobs right and left here in Michigan. Ideally, I wanted to find a hard working family that was in need but not just looking for a handout. But after turning down the first 3 families that were presented to me it became very clear that these were not the types of families that were seeking out sponsorship.

So, after much thought, I decided on the 4th family that was presented to me.

Here's their profile: Single mother. 5 kids. 2 different dads are involved. Both dads are in jail and provide zero support. Mom doesn't work. Mom has severe asthma (is frequently hospitalized). Is on welfare. She's a size 22 as stated in her clothing wish list (this has absolutely nothing to do with anything but my reasons for bringing this up will become clear further down this post).

My initial reaction was to turn this family down. This would have been the 4th family I turned down.

Why did I want to turn this family down? I was thinking why isn't she working? Why is she on welfare? Why are the dads in jail? She's probably lazy. She's probably been looking for a handout her entire life. I was thinking that this is a family who is probably in the situation they're in for reasons that WERE in their control.

But, after some sole searching, I came to the following conclusion....Bottom line is I don't know this family. I don't know this mom. I don't know her situation. And all of these things that I don't know are irrelevant anyway. Because the one thing I DO know is that those kids had nothing to do with their situation. THEY (the kids) are in a needy situation for reasons that are out of their control. Because those kids are innocent bystanders in all of this. Those kids deserve a break....they deserve a good Christmas. Bottom line.

And you know what mom put in the kids' wish lists? Basic needs. Winter coats. Boots. Warm clothes. These kids deserve (at the very least) to be WARM this holiday season. So I sent out an email to the 2 remaining family members who wanted to participate. I received a phone call from one of them the next day. The following paragraph are just SOME of the things that came out of this person's mouth....

"We want to participate and sponsor a family with you but not THIS family. There are things that we don't like about this family. Mom's on welfare. She's not working. There's no reason she can't work with asthma. And the dads are both in jail? And she's a size 22 so obviously they're not going hungry."

I was speechless.

Absolutely speechless.

So, the spirit in which this was intended has been completely ruined. And we have decided to just scrap the whole idea and just tell everyone to use the money they would have spent on us to sponsor a family of their own choice....or just pocket the damn money and don't give it to anyone because I'm sure that's what everyone wants to do anyway. Cuz I give up. I had hoped to turn this into a nice family holiday tradition but it's become painfully obvious that that's not going to happen.

Sad.