RE: Santa Claus
June 25, 2013 at 11:31 am
(This post was last modified: June 25, 2013 at 11:37 am by The Grand Nudger.)
(June 25, 2013 at 10:01 am)BadWriterSparty Wrote: I've been doing a bit of research into this, and I thought perhaps if I brought this topic up in a forum that I might get some good feedback.
In the course of my reading, I've come to my own conclusion that telling Children that Santa Claus is real has more potential to harm them than to tell them that Ol' Saint Nick is just as make-believe as Harry Potter. I understand that telling children that Santa is real has become a pasttime in many cultures, and is a Christmas tradition.
The fact that I found startling, is that telling them he's real is just as much a lie as anything. Statistics suggest that most kids turn out okay when they find out their parents were pulling a fast one on them, about 62%, if I recall correctly. The problem is, that 38% still have negative aftereffects of the lie, and mistrust of their parental units begins.
In my house, with my daughter, Santa is still a part of the Holiday Season, but we say that he's just pretend. This, I believe, will continue to stimulate her imagination and help her to grow up in a trusting, fun atmosphere.
Let's hear what some of you have to say on this, and I fully expect some disagreements (my wife actually disagreed with me on this at first, but we've had some good discussion on it and have come to an equitable solution).
Oh I don't know, it's difficult for me to form an unbroken chain of sound thought that leads to the conclusion that fiction is bad. Not that this would be indicative of whether or not it is, mind you, but help me get from here to there? If you could cite the source of your statistics (I'd like to see what was chalked down to santa stories and why - explicitly) that would help. I can't see mistrust of parents (and we must specifically be talking about mistrust of claims that parents may make) as being a "bad thing" in and of itself. Parents do lie...after all......
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