Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy

[perth]

But the thing is, you can nurture an interest in mythology without letting your children believe a lie (it may be harsh to call it a lie, but let's call a spade a spade). Mythology is fascinating and almost always entertaining, I'm quite partial to Nordic and Irish mythology. Again, I think it's best, in my case, to allow my child to live the fantasy, but make sure he knows it's fantasy. I'm not going to dupe my kid.

And I'm not sure how Nike and the 26 mile marathon are related. Nike was, if I remember correctly the Greek Goddess of Victory, and the 26 mile marathon came from, what, when Phillipides (sp?) ran from Athens to Sparta (a distance of about 26 miles) to request help.

Oh, I getcha. both Greek. Duh.

[Cyber Wolf]

Originally Posted by perth

But the thing is, you can nurture an interest in mythology without letting your children believe a lie (it may be harsh to call it a lie, but let's call a spade a spade). Mythology is fascinating and almost always entertaining, I'm quite partial to Nordic and Irish mythology. Again, I think it's best, in my case, to allow my child to live the fantasy, but make sure he knows it's fantasy. I'm not going to dupe my kid.

Of course, you can nuture interest in mythology in other ways. My point is, that 'dupe' is how I got interested in it. All fictional stories are lies in the same way magic shows lie to the audience. How they affect people depends on how they are applied and what kind of understanding the reader/listener has. If a child asked where Spongebob Squarepants lived, would it be better to tell the child "Oh he doesn't really exist, but everyone pretends he lives under the sea." Heck, with the fervor Squarepants has created, you might find some full fledged adults who would refuse to be believe you out of fandom

[perth]

Heh, pulling the Spongebob argument is below the belt.

Okay, so I was raised by parents who let me believe in Santa Claus (And yeah, I was devastated to find out. Bias revealed. Nothing to see here, move along). However, had I expressed a fervent belief in the existence of Lion-O or Optimus Prime, I like to think they would have corrected me. I'm not sure how to put this into words, but what I'm getting at is that while characters like Spongebob are culturally iconic on a scale similar to that of Santa Claus, there is a difference. I'm not sure if the difference is based on longevity, close relationship to a major holiday or life event, or something else entirely. So in my mind we're comparing apples and oranges.

But I do agree that it is *possible* to expose a child to the truth without causing (much) harm, and your experience is evidence of that. I guess what I don't understand is why a parent would think that way. "Oh it's okay to let them think that now, I'll break it to them easy one day". Well, what if you fuck that up? I'd rather tell the truth from the start than have to fess up to a lie later on. It still boils down to whether a person should lie to the people that trust them most in the world. And I think the answer to that should always be "no".