Here we are again.  Sears has graciously opened their Heroes at Home Gift Registry again.  If you haven’t heard of it before, it is a rather generous offer from Sears to give gift cards to military families and has caused absolute chaos and, frankly, embarrassment in years past.

As of this writing, the registry has been open less than 12 hours and I’ve already seen multiple groups announcing server issues and multiple people complaining that the site isn’t loading fast enough or is having other issues.

I’d like to stop you all right there.

Sears is under no obligation to offer this money to military families.  They are doing it to be kind and to try to support military families.  I, for one, think that is pretty amazing and we should simply be thankful to them.  Complaining about the system getting bogged down while hundreds of thousands of you sit on your computer repeatedly refreshing your screens and trying to enter (which is what is bogging the system down in the first place) makes you sound entitled.

And, frankly, each year they have done this has ended up the same and I wish they would stop.

Each year my feed on Facebook and Twitter is filled with complaints about the registry and filled with rude comments when someone doesn’t get into it.  And, while on paper the registry looks like an awesome thing to do for our military, what is truly does is show the rest of the world that the stereotype of entitled military spouses and families thinking the country owes them something is true.

And I don’t even qualify.

So while, I have seen more people than I care to admit complaining today, what they are forgetting is that Sears only extends this offer to Active Duty families.  They completely leave out National Guard and Reserve families.  Which means, that even if I felt so inclined to get caught up in the commotion, I couldn’t.

Think about the idea that all of these people are behaving so disappointingly and then think about the idea that while they are complaining about not getting in or issues with registering, an entire portion of our military is excluded from this registry all together.

Kind of makes you embarrassed doesn’t it?

I really do wish Sears would stop doing it.  And I’m surprised that, with how poorly military families have represented themselves each year, they continue.  But since they seem determined to ignore the shouts of frustration at them and the angry messages being left on the Sears Facebook Fan Page each year, the least the rest of us could do is behave in a respectable, and grateful manner.  And remember that we are not owed this, we are being given it out of the goodness of Sears’ metaphorical heart.  So don’t mess this up and have it taken away because you can’t act with decorum, grace or like an adult.  And remember that a whole group of this nations military, who serve just as proudly as your spouse does, whose families are just as proud as you are, aren’t even allowed to enter.

 

**** 8/31/13 5pm PST

There has been some questions about the wording of Sears guidelines and rules.  The eligibility rules specifically are cause for speculation of whether or not Reservists are eligible.  I am going to attempt to contact Sears for clarification.

However, National Guard is not listed at all, so, as far as I can tell, they are still not eligible not matter what the outcome of the inquiring into their wording.