She and her 7 year old sister both lost a tooth at the same time so the tooth fairy killed two birds with one visit, or something like that. My 9 year old always writes the tooth fairy a note asking her questions and being friendly. Well the tooth fairy always writes back, in teeny tiny handwriting.
This time she said, "Mom, be HONEST. Did you sneak into my room and put the money and this note under my pillow?" Kids had been teasing her at school and were telling her it was her parents.
What do you do when your kids prefaces something with, "BE HONEST". In the past she just said, "Is there really a tooth fairy?"
So this time I fessed up. "Yes, it was me."
Well, the level of devastation took me by surprise a little.
I said, "Well why did you say, BE HONEST?"
She sobbed through her tears, "I didn't think you would say YES!"
So then came the inevitable follow-up disappointment of no Easter Bunny etc.
"EVERYTHING I'VE EVER BELIEVED IN IS A LIE!!!" Oh for heaven sake...
Now, being a week before Christmas I REALLY didn't want to kill off Santa so when she said,
"Mom, are you Santa?" I heard myself saying, "No. For the record, I still believe in Santa."
"So you are saying that you are NOT Santa. Right?"
"Um... right. I'm not Santa." (What the hell was I doing?)
"So then there IS a Santa then, right?"
"Well, yeah."
Ok, so all was well until my husband later tells me that he fessed up that we were Santa, since she asked him too. Ah MAN! I forgot to fill him in on my conversation with her.
Apparently, she took it surprisingly well. By that time I'm pretty sure she knew Mom was full of crap and she was willing to humor me.
You can see though that it's still this peripheral thing. Since there is no tangible evidence that we are Santa, it's just sort of this conversation that happened. When she actually sees us stuffing the stockings, I think that will be the closure she is reluctantly looking for.
So goes the tidings of youth. She still gets to keep it alive for her little sister. So that will be a little bit of fun for her.
4 comments:
In one of my child development classes we had this conversation as to when to tell your kids whether or not there is a Santa. My theory is that there is a Santa as long as you believe.
Yes, Santa lives in the hearts and minds of those who believe, to be sure...but when a kid has you on the ropes, grilling you about the physical manifestation of a fat guy in a red suit tracking ashes around and bringing presents... well... what do ya do?
That answer is still up in the air!
yes... well, we buckled. Mainly because kids were teasing her at school, because she still believed, so I figured if I were to keep up the charade, it wouldn't really be a service to her.
I think you just have to wing it depending on the situation.
Thanks for your comments. :-) Come back again soon!
Post a Comment