I didn't say it, Conner's coworker did...
Conner offered to write out gifts tags from Santa for a coworker, so her daughter wouldn't recognize her handwriting. This woman told Conner that she told her daughter that Santa isn't real. Yes, she has a nearly 4 year old whom she told that Santa isn't real, just like Tinker Bell & Strawberry Shortcake aren't real. Now how these three were lumped together, I don't know. This woman's reasoning for it is that she doesn't want her daughter to be disappointed when she's 7 & figures out that Santa isn't real. Seriously? I think that Max figured out something was up with Santa earlier than that. When he was 2 he noticed that Santa's block printing is just like mine. I countered with the commonality of that kind of printing--So common! Really? Santa's printing looks like mine? How nice! The following year he noticed that Santa used the same kind of wrapping paper that we did. I responded with, Santa likes things to match the individual homes--it looks better that way. While I had thought about disguising these things, I thought I had a year more than I really did to do it. How wrong was I!
So, Conner & I discussed why the Tooth Fairy doesn't live with this group. We are supposing that since the Tooth Fairy doesn't interrupt any Christian holidays, she's off the hook. Conner & this woman didn't even make it to the Easter Bunny, because that was my next question, as I'm sure it is yours. I'm supposing he lives with them, too. We had a big laugh because there are so many other things our parents lied to us about that Santa, the Tooth Fairy & the Easter Bunny were really the lesser of the so-called lies. Yes, she felt she was lying to her daughter. Yes, she's Christian but not in an overly proselytizing way.
My response was & is that I'm pretty sure that Max suspects, if not knows, that the Tooth Fairy isn't real but doesn't say anything. He doesn't say anything because of his Santa Claus suspicions. He openly & directly questioned the existence of Santa Claus when he was in Kindergarten. We had a long talk about believing and even if we didn't think that he was a real person (he's analytical and the logistics, among so many other things, really made no sense whatsoever to him) it was about the spirit of Christmas and the love and the magic. If he wasn't buying that, I added (for good measure) that if he didn't believe, Santa wouldn't come. That's just how we roll around here. A good dose of reality mixed in with fiction never really hurts, does it? He even went so far as to ask if Stuart believed but he didn't, would Santa bring both of them presents? No. No he wouldn't. Stuart would receive and Max would not. That discussion, despite the fact that both boys both try to wait up for the Tooth Fairy, has stilled any voiced doubts about her existence.
I suppose that on some level I'm not a whole lot different in my fantasy/reality sort of dealings with these mystical figures than this woman. It's just I won't get jumped in the daycare parking lot when everyone figures out it's her daughter who's spreading the word that Santa isn't real!
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