[Stormster]

awww Fran just go for it!

Or at least some variation, no?

[sammyhas3]

I enjoyed reading this post. ... My boys being 25 and 22 laugh and say I cant belive you lied to us for all those years. I tell them when they are on the couch with the counselors you can tell him what a bad mom I was.... To this day they are always looking under the tree to see what Santa has brought them.

[lovemy2boys]

The other day, AJ told me that last year, he heard a noise, snuck in the living room and saw santa coming in through the front door...

Ok - kids do this...in fact, my mom said that I told her the same thing as a kid...

But what cracks me up, is that JD backed up the story!! He said "I saw him mom - I was here too" and AJ said "Yep he was!!!"

Cracks me up...

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

The other day, AJ told me that last year, he heard a noise, snuck in the living room and saw santa coming in through the front door...

Ok - kids do this...in fact, my mom said that I told her the same thing as a kid...

But what cracks me up, is that JD backed up the story!! He said "I saw him mom - I was here too" and AJ said "Yep he was!!!"

Cracks me up...

See to me that's the beauty of imagination. I love that the boys backed each other up too!

[Shadowfaerie]

Our son isn't even 2 yet, but we've decided to tell him there is a Santa, and being involved in a transracial adoption as far as we're concerned Santa is black, the stores (cartoons) just have it all wrong. We're probably going to have Santa bring small gifts and we will give the big present or something like that. We don't want him to be under the impression he can expect Santa to bring him every gift under the sun because Santa has an unending supply of money/gifts lying around.

I'm looking forward to when he gets a bit older and really starts to know what's going on at the holidays

[Shadowfaerie]

Originally Posted by manni28

All of your examples are beatiful memories of childhood! When I was growing-up ( in the 70's) if you got dollar from the tooth fairy you were rich! Now adays $5.00 is the norm!

-Manni

Holy cow you got a dollar! I got a quarter

And I have no plans for the Toothfairy to give my son 5 bucks for losing a tooth. That's nearly what I got working as a guard for an hour, not a good way to teach a child the value of money IMO.

[lovemy2boys]

Originally Posted by Stormster

I love that the boys backed each other up too!

Yes...but I can see my future, say when they are 15 and 17, and it aint pretty!!!

And Shadow...the tooth fairy brings our kids the dollar coins, or 50 cent pieces...And they don't spend them, because they look "different" than the normal dollars. More special.

[MamaS]

I told Spiderman about Santa Claus last year and he (for the first time) "got it". He thought a minute and said: Let's turn the fire on and lock the doors. He can leave the presents outside in the yard!
Apparently, the idea of a strange man sneaking into the house at night did not appeal to him at all. This year he has already checked the fireplace and reported to me that the gas isn't working and we "have to get it fixed before Christmas!" Watch out, Santa!

[Shadowfaerie]

Originally Posted by MamaS

I told Spiderman about Santa Claus last year and he (for the first time) "got it". He thought a minute and said: Let's turn the fire on and lock the doors. He can leave the presents outside in the yard!
Apparently, the idea of a strange man sneaking into the house at night did not appeal to him at all. This year he has already checked the fireplace and reported to me that the gas isn't working and we "have to get it fixed before Christmas!" Watch out, Santa!

LOL!! It's good he has a plan for home defense.

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

Yes...but I can see my future, say when they are 15 and 17, and it aint pretty!!!
.

Well better than running around tattling on each other right? I think?

[Stormster]

Originally Posted by MamaS

I told Spiderman about Santa Claus last year and he (for the first time) "got it". He thought a minute and said: Let's turn the fire on and lock the doors. He can leave the presents outside in the yard!
Apparently, the idea of a strange man sneaking into the house at night did not appeal to him at all. This year he has already checked the fireplace and reported to me that the gas isn't working and we "have to get it fixed before Christmas!" Watch out, Santa!

THAT IS HILARIOUS!

[Ladyofmoonlight]

The only argument my husband and I ever had was about whether or not to teach our future children about Santa Claus (this was when we'd been dating maybe a year). My husband always believed in Santa, I didn't, and we both loved Christmas and neither of us wanted it any other way. In the end we're going with my way: We'll do the traditional stuff, leave cookies and milk, have fun with it, but at the same time understand it's all make believe. I loved Christmas, it was so magical to me, and I never needed to believe Santa was real to feel that magic.

Of course, I do have a few negative memories of people believing in Santa. When I was a kid one of my friends was very poor and her family could never afford much (usually homemade knit things) and this poor girl... on the playground all the other children would ask what everyone got for Christmas and when they found out she only got a scarf she was pretty much ostracized. Why? Because she must be very bad. I mean, they got all these great toys and all she got was a homemade scarf her older sister knit, and since Santa only brings presents to good children she must've been awful. Poor thing also believed in Santa and, oddly enough, also believed that she must've been very bad. I think that ruined the "Santa is part of the innocence of childhood" thing for me totally. That and I had a Jewish friend who was petrified he'd end up at her house by mistake and be mad at her for not being Christian (family didn't teach her to believe Santa but friends did).

Either way, this year Paxton "believes" in Santa in the same way he believes that Dora the Explorer is a real person, where he kinda gets that it's make believe but also kinda, sorta believes. We see him at the mall and wave hello. I'm not anti-Santa by any means, and I certainly had fun with it as a kid even knowing it was just a normal guy in a suit.

[aclee]

I just want to add that my parents "lied" to me ALL the time when I was growing up. My mom made us believe that she had eyes in the back of her head. When she was doing the dishes, she could see us in the reflection of the glass and she would part her hair in the back, and tell us exactly what we were doing. I'm sure we were better behaved because of it. When we renovate the kitchen I'm moving the sink to be under a window.

I can I just say that I think sometimes parents can go a little overboard? I mean what happened to the good old days when your parents lied to you if that was what was best, put you over their knee for a quick spank when you really go out of line and expected you to do chores? To me some return to good old fashioned parenting wouldn't be a bad thing.

Ty will get $5.00 when he earns it. We'll do the $1 coins too from the tooth fairy. Judging by how slow this teeth are coming in though, I think he'll be in college when they start to come out, so maybe he'll be on to the whole tooth fairy thing.

Question for you all about lying to your kids. My sister was driving by a moose that got hit by a car. Maybe more than one car, she couldn't really tell. anyway, my 3 year old niece saw him, sitting on the side of the road. Alive but not standing. They went to pick up a prescription and as they got further down the road, there were 3 gun shots. When my sister was telling me, I was crying. When they had to go back by, they had somehow dragged the moose off the road a little and were gutting it. It was dark, and the moose was no longer on the side of the car with my 3 year old niece, but on the other side. She asked her Mom where the moose was, and what all the trucks were for (one truck at the plate BRN2HNT...born 2 hunt) I'm all for eating meat. We have a whole butchered deer in our second freezer. If the moose had to be put down, I'm glad it wasn't going to waste. I'm practical like that, I eat meat, but I still have feelings for them. Anyway, my sister told my niece that they were loading the moose up to go to the moose Dr because he was hurt when the car hit him. She cried for 1/2 an hour. She's very sensitive. What would you all have told them? They do talk about death with her, but didn't in this situation.

I like the way my sister handled it. I have no illusions that someday my niece is going to be an ax murderer because they lied to her about a moose getting put down on the side of the road, and that all the trucks were people gutting him so they could eat him, not taking him to the moose Dr.

I guess I get that telling your kids the truth is important, but isn't it sort of like telling someone their hair cut looks nice when really you don't care for it? I don't feel like I was ever "lied" to when I was younger, although clearly I was told untruths. I'm an honest, productive member of society, so I guess I don't see the harm in the untruths of Santa or the Easter Bunny, or the Moose Doctor for that matter.

[Shadowfaerie]

Originally Posted by lovemy2boys

And Shadow...the tooth fairy brings our kids the dollar coins, or 50 cent pieces...And they don't spend them, because they look "different" than the normal dollars. More special.

I like that idea of using interesting coins from the Toothfairy, definitely borrow that one.

[melissa_bear003]

Aclee, I completely agree with you.

Honesty simply isn't always the best policy, and as I said before, I lie like a cheap rug. I lie by omission, and sometimes flat out if it means protecting my children a little longer.

My only concern is how I'm going to be able to break into their apartments on Christmas Eve once they move out, and still expect Santa to show up