Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy

[lumberjim]

party poopers. you wait until your kids are a little older. you'll be lying your natural ass off to them. mark my words.....MARK THEM, I SAY!

[perth]

I doubt it, but I will acquiesce to your greater experience in the fileld of child-rearing and say "maybe, but I hope not".

[juju]

I know the psychological harm is minimal at best. To me, it's the principle of the matter. If I want to treat my kids with respect, then I should be consitent. Otherwise, I'm not respecting them at all.

All too often, I see parents lying to their children (over non-holiday things) just because they don't know any different.

For example, my mom and I used to go to the mall. Whenever I'd ask her if I could have a toy, she'd usually just say that she didn't have any money. How can you argue with that? If she's broke, she's broke. Well, one day she told me this, and not 30 minutes later, she opened her purse to buy something for herself, and there was a sea of money in there. What a lying bitch! I realized then that she had been telling me that she was broke all this time because she knew that I would believe anything. She never respected me. She loved me, but she didn't respect me.

I can't think of any other examples right now, but I know there are lots and lots. Parents are ALWAYS lying to their kids because it's convenient and they don't know any better. If it's about sex or something to do with their own safety, then that's different. But some people take it way too far.

Yes, the Santa thing is peanuts. But like I said, if I pledge to treat my child like a real human being, then I should go all the way and be consistent with it. Otherwise, I'm violating my principles.

[juju]

Hey, Perth, I was just looking at an old quotes file on my hard drive (which I didn't even know I had), and I came across this quote attributed to you:

<blockquote><i>im not sure that was a conscious intent, his intent was to instill respect. either way, its still the wrong way to go about it. basilbrush said respect breeds respect, and i think thats true. my father never understood that. i was his son, so dammit, i owe him respect. well, i dont know about respect, but sometimes i feel like i owe him a good asskicking.</i></blockquote>

Kinda neat that I came across this by chance.

[perth]

Originally Posted by juju

Hey, Perth, I was just looking at an old quotes file on my hard drive (which I didn't even know I had), and I came across this quote attributed to you:

<blockquote><i>im not sure that was a conscious intent, his intent was to instill respect. either way, its still the wrong way to go about it. basilbrush said respect breeds respect, and i think thats true. my father never understood that. i was his son, so dammit, i owe him respect. well, i dont know about respect, but sometimes i feel like i owe him a good asskicking.</i></blockquote>

Kinda neat that I came across this by chance.

Hey! From back in my "Capitalisation? What the fuck is that?" phase. Thanks for bringing this back to mind, I still owe him that asskicking.

[lumberjim]

Originally Posted by perth

Hey! From back in my "Capitalisation? What the fuck is that?" phase. Thanks for bringing this back to mind, I still owe him that asskicking.

hey! that's the phase i'm in

[perth]

Originally Posted by lumberjim

party poopers. you wait until your kids are a little older. you'll be lying your natural ass off to them. mark my words.....MARK THEM, I SAY!

Sorry to drag this up from the dead, but Case and I were talking about something else which prompted me to go looking up this thread.

LJ, you were right. I suppose I don't actively encourage a belief in Santa, fairies of various sorts, and anthropomorphic animals, I don't exactly discourage it either. Why? Because it's almost as much fun for me as it is for the boy.