I used to think that lying to your kids about Santa Claus was overall a plus. Sure they're upset when they learn the truth, but the fun and excitement they derive from Santa is well worth it.
Recently I thought that there is yet another reason to have your children believe in Santa Claus: it teaches a good lesson, that authority can lie to you. It gives them a healthy dose of cynicism that will make them less likely to be brainwashed into believing other fantastical and baseless ideas in the future. If my parents lied to me about Santa, maybe I'm being lied to about God or the lethality of marijuana.
However, I'm not so sure it actually works out this way. It might have the opposite effect. It might be that the experience is so traumatic that children seek to avoid such epiphanies in the future. They become generally less curious about things for fear that it might lead to extreme disappointment. After all, the majority of the American public (I think) have gone through this and yet they still cling to idiotic and childish beliefs.
Maybe it depends on the delivery? Maybe when you break the news to your kids you need to carefully explain what they should learn from it?
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1 comments:
Coming to the conclusion that Santa was not real did not make me doubt my faith in God. Sure, I was disappointed, but I wished I could have held onto that a little longer. It made Christmas a lot more fun, more magical. Christmas is supposed to be about the birth of Christ, but like with Easter, they had to try to make it more appealing to children. A male friend of mine said that finding out his parents lied about Santa made him because an atheist for years. He regained his faith again, but he is very much against any kind of lie. I don't think its completely bad, the tradition came from Saint Nicholas who brought toys to poor children. It follows the tradition from when the wise men brought gifts to baby Jesus. We celebrate Jesus' birthday with the joy of giving to others. I think its okay to let your kids believe in Santa, but not place strong emphasis on it.
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