rubato wrote:I don't see how anyone can complain just because children were told the truth. Do you want them to grow up knowing that you'll lie to them just for your own pleasure?
yrs,
rubato
That's pretty substantial to me. It received no (recognisable) response by way of discussion, merely some fiat about "magical thinking" and lying to which I again responded with substance:Maybe it's for one's own pleasure, rube but I don't think that's the entire story. Undeniably, one gets more than a frisson of pleasure from enacting the yarn - maintaining the fantasy - waiting irritably until stupid hours of the morning for the little tykes to finally fall asleep so one can creep around setting out gifts, putting the milk back in the carton and the biscuits back in the barrel ensuring that some crumbs remain on the plate, filling the stockings, etc. It's a bit of magic for those years when they believe it - and those years go so very fast.
Eventually Christmas becomes a more prosaic calculation by pre-teens and teenagers as to how much money mum and dad really are willing to spend and they know who to blame when there is insufficiency - it used to be Santa; now it's the wrinklies at fault for not meeting expectation. All too soon it's just the money because it's easier all round.
No, I think I lied to them (as I was lied to - if you must put it that way) because the family enjoyed the fantasy together that there was a mystery that no one understood but which somehow brought not just gifts but wonder into an early winter morning.
This poor vicar apparently did rather more than just give the St Nicholas attribution (which by the way I and my kids were aware of - we rather thought that he remained alive somehow, bringing gifts as St Nick with Santa Claus being just another name) according to the Telegraph:
He told children that Father Christmas was based on a grisly legend about Saint Nicholas, who bought three murdered children back to life. The Church of England vicar described how the youngsters were killed by an evil butcher and placed in a barrel to be pickled and sold as ham.
Teaching children to believe in magical thinking is destructive to developing a functional world view.
I am sorry for insulting the latest Kim Il for raising robotic killers and if you think sarcasm is an insult then I guess you felt insulted.I would say just the opposite - assuming I understand what the term "magical thinking" attempts to represent.
The essence of humanity (on one scale at least) is imagination, which is a polite word for fantasy. There must always be a form of encouragement to believe in the possibility of the impossible, the plausibility of the implausible and the sheer delight in wonder. I think there are about zero nation-dominating monsters who became that way by virtue of an early childhood belief in Santa Claus. OTOH Various Kim Ils of North Korea were doubtless raised in "scientific rationalism" and have an extremely disfunctional worldview.
Those without children (or who have raised robotic killers) are doubtless better equipped to dictate to those with children how they are to be raised.
Merry Christmas
Meade
