A while back, in this post, I was discussing the inner conflict I was having in regards to filling SmallBoy in on our mythical holiday figures. At the suggesting of PM, I had him watch It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, last night. I questioned him as we went through, "So what do you think? Is the Great Pumpkin real?" The beginning moments had SmallBoy answering a resounding "YES!" to that question, while the ending moments had him saying, "Nope. It was just Snoopy in the patch."I then asked him something along the lines of, "Was it ok that even though Linus believed that there really was a Great Pumpkin, that it was just pretend?" "Did anything in Linus' world change because there wasn't a Great Pumpkin?" Get this: He was totally fine with that! THANKS PM - and thanks for the call! Now, I'm still not quite ready to broach the subject, but at least the groundwork has been laid. Hopefully we'll have this figured out before Christmas.
7 comments:
I caught myself telling Ella over the weekend that maybe Santa would bring her a Dora toy that she wanted. She nodded, but of course she has no idea who Santa is. But I think I'll have to figure out this Santa thing by next Christmas! And then of course get the rest of the family to abide by it.
Arrg. Do not even want to bring this up. I still believe in the GP and the fuzzy red man. Do not have to go there ... do not have to go there ...
No worries Marti - there's the magical part of still believing. I'm frustrated with how he'll react when I finally have to break the news or what will happen if someone else does. Ooh, SmallBoy lurking over the shoulder. Gotta run.
I grew up rather "ethnic" in a culture that doesn't have Santa or the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny, etc. (I know, so deprived!) so its hard for me to talk about the aforementioned people with my kids. During Xmas, I don't flat-out tell Isaac that Santa doesn't exist, but I DO tell him that mommy and daddy work really hard to buy him and India his presents and I don't let Santa take the credit for that! Each time I'm tempted to tell him Santa won't bring presents if he's bad, I fast forward to 5 or 6 years from now when it dawns on him that I lied the whole time!
Sal.
We will let the children believe in santa for as long as they can, as once they start asking sensible questions, we give truthful answers. However we have always told them that we have to pay santa for the presents he brings, plus a bit extra to pay for presents to all the children who don't have parents/are too poor to pay. That way they keep the magic, but don't expect anything & everything o be available to them.
Thanks for the enlightened point of view, Mrs. A. I like that take also.
Sal - oh what a great way to have them understand. I love it.
You've all been absolutely helpful. As soon as we get past this obstacle with Ex, I think perhaps it will be time to address this issue. I'll take all of your comments, work them into a wonderful format for him....hmmm, maybe I can write a book for him....
mrs. a...that's brilliant!
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