My children slay dragons. That is the joy of childhood. To a child dragons are real. So are faries, witches, mermaids and Santa Claus.
Lately though I see more and more parents opting to teach their kids from the get go that Santa is not real. I know these people in real life and cyber space. Generally I see it as a parents prerogative to raise their children as they see fit as long as they are care for. However this is my blog so I am gonna rant.
There are lots of reasons parents choose not tell tell their kids Santa is real. I am going to talk about the most common ones I hear.
I don't lie to my kid.
Yes you do we all do. We tell them if they smoke they will get lung cancer when in reality it just puts them at risk for it. We tell then that everything will be ok when they are sad or afraid and we all know that is the biggest lie ever. If you have an ugly kid I bet you don't tell them that. If your kid gets cancer I bet you don't say "you are probably going to die" even if it is true.
Yeah Santa is technically a lie. It is called a white lie, kinda like the one you told when your wife asked if she looked fat in her new skinny jeans.
I don't want some imaginary person getting credit for the presents I buy.
Credit! seriously? wow if you are worried about getting the credit for making your kid happy you REALLY miss the point of Christmas and kindness in general. You should not be teaching your kid that getting credit is important but that kindness is its own reward.
It is traumatic when they learn the truth.
really? for who? I don't remember being traumatized and neither do any of my friends.
Here is the thing, by opting out of Santa, the Tooth Fairy, Gnomes, and all sorts of magic you are taking your child's only opportunity to believe. This is not something that mentally stable adults can do.
A large part of a child's innocence is their ability to believe there is so much more to this world than what we see. To know with a certainty that only the young have, that tomorrow will be better. Why would anyone intentionally put a lid on that?
I think it's strange that people think it's okay to ruin imagination and wonder for children. I feel that anyone who does things to the extreme is over compensating for the lack of trust in their childhood, and that's just not fair.
ReplyDeleteI think that may be a good point Leslie
ReplyDelete