So my 7-year-old son announces at the breakfast table, "There's no such thing as Santa." As you can imagine, this catches the 4-year-old's attention pretty quickly. "WHAT?" says the 4-year-old.
I grab Tall by his sleeve and yank him out of the room. (Okay, maybe not my proudest Parenting Moment.) "Tall, who told you that?" I demand.
"Older kids on the bus," he confesses timidly. Those damn Older Kids. Always ruining everything for everyone else.
"Well, then I guess Santa doesn't come to their house," I say, channeling my mother or Bing Crosby or Carol Brady or someone-who-knows-how-to-handle-dissension.
In the next few seconds, all the childhood myths cloud my brain: Easter Bunny, Leprechauns, Tooth Fairy. We tell our children to believe in Santa Claus and they do. They trust us. Until one day, the fable explodes, and then they say:
"Mommy? Does God exist?"
MOV
("Mashing Our Values")
I have to agree with you. When our oldest child was born, 15 yrs ago, we had to make a decision on what we would tell our children. We went back and forth (my parents never did the santa thing but Handsome Hubby's family pushed santa big time), then the thought came to mind that if we teach them to believe in falseities, then how are we supposed to show/teach/expalin that God is real, "no, I know we can't see Him, Sweetheart", "yeah, He can see everything,He is everywhere at once, He is All Present." "oh, we told you the same thing about Santa? Umm, well that was just a story we make up to tell our children, no its not the same thing, God IS REAL, trust me on this one." How are we supposed to have them trust us, or believe us?
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm glad I have dogs. They never ask me these questions.
ReplyDelete