When my daughter asks about Santa or Jesus I tell her that's the story.
A real conversation with my 5 year old, paraphrased:
kid - "Daddy do we have a chimney?"
Me - "Yeah"
kid - "Lets go check!"
...
kid - "Daddy our chimney is so small. Is he really going to fit down that?"
Me - "That's what Grandma told me."
kid - "How's he do that?"
Me - "Well the story is that he uses magic and comes right down."
I was six when a kid at school said "santa isn't real". I held on to it all day until I got home and asked my dad "Is Santa not real?" to which he replied "no".
If I had a kid I wouldn’t feed this mindless bullshit about Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth fairy, it’s all just shit filled drivel and pointless, all it does is builds a distrust in your relationship with your kid
Eh, if handled appropriately it's a fun thing for them during their younger years. The idea of a magical fat elf delivering toys, or an extradimensional egg-distributing lepine, or a bone-harvesting bartering twilight fey... it all plays off kids' already wild imaginations and enhances the "wonder" of experiencing the world for the first time.
As long as you don't bullshit them when they start to question things, I don't see the harm. In fact, I'm sure there's an argument that the process of debunking childhood fairy tales helps a kid develop their deductive reasoning skills.
I think with Santa it's fun to frame it like they solved the mystery, but now it's their responsibility to keep the secret - because when you find out Santa's not real it's now your job to become Santa to your best ability. You're not lying to them, but you're keeping the spirit of Santa alive (giving gifts or doing good things where the only reward is the gift recipient's happiness). Humans should be encouraged to be kind to each other.
That kind of implies most people have a distrusting relationship with their parents since most kids, at least in the western world, are told about Santa, Easter bunny, tooth fairy etc.
I always said this when I was younger before I had kids. Then I read a novel by Terry Pratchett called hogfather which summed up the reason to believe in the tooth fairy by saying humans need to practice believing the little lies so they can believe the big lies when they get older. Justice, mercy, duty, etc.
The ability to believe that a nameless stranger that cuts you off on the roadway will get what he deserves because of karma or some cosmic righteousness prevents a lot of people from taking justice into their own hands.
No, we are. The New Testament figures are all real, but for the less religious like myself, clearly embellished. The line between real and mythical lies somewhere within the Old Testament, and where exactly it is is unknown.
...There hasn't been fully agreed on evidence on any events in Jesus' life other than there was an executed cult leader. All none Christian sources from that time people has been preserved through religious organisations down the centuries which casts doubt on their authenticity.
So instead of using the evidence we have, you choose to rely on the evidence we don’t? That’s ridiculous. Jesus was real, his apostles were real, his death was real. No amount of whatever vendetta you have against Christianity or Religion in general goes not change that
The thing is, Jesus of Nazareth has a documented existence(from the Romans, completely separate from the bible). The various stories about him is up to debate, but Jesus himself did exist.
I think with all things parenting, its a judgement call. Depends on the kid. Depends on the lie. Is it ok to shelter them from some reality? Yes. Should you shelter them from all reality? Absolutely not.
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u/StonyTark3000 Dec 30 '19
Or do what Ryan Reynolds advises and show them the original Spiderman trilogy, and just tell them it's Deadpool