A Follow Up

Before Cinderella even came into the picture, Amaleah and I had a sweet conversation. She told me that a friend of hers at school still believed in Santa, and that she had told this friend that each family's parents do things differently. She had been quite concerned about her friend, and "didn't want to hurt her," but at the same time, she "didn't want to lie." I so appreciated knowing how she handled this. She told me that she knew eventually her parents would tell her the truth, but she knew that was their job and not hers.

As our conversation continued and I encouraged her for being so sensitive and wise in her response to her friend, I reminded her why we never told them that Santa was real. We always want them to know that we tell them the truth, and we never want to confuse them or make them doubt us in other things. Several friends over the years have told us that when they found out Santa wasn't real, it actually made them doubt whether God was even real. How did they know that one was real but the other wasn't? Maybe their parents had been lying about everything, they wondered.

Granted, this is probably not the story with most children, and probably most children come through unscathed--they come to the age where they can sort through the real and the fairy tale, and they move on in life.  But that's the path we've taken in this whole fairy tale thing.

Of course, after this deep and heartfelt conversation with Amaleah, now I'm faced with having to gently tell Julia that the Cinderella was a fraud, a fake. Better yet, I think my sweet party-throwing friend should be the one to do it.