A massive toy factory at the North Pole, operated by Mr and Mrs Claus (she has a non-speaking role) and hundreds of tiny people forced into hard labor.

And for what? To build toys so as to fulfill the un-earned wishes of so many spoiled-rotten kids.

Will this never end?

Why are we bringing our children into this world with such a dichotomy? We lie to them about this Santa-character for years, ignore the real meaning of Christmas, and then wonder why they begin to lie.

Is Christmas for their benefit? Sure, they’ll get into it by the time they pass toddler status into pre-schoolers, but that’s also the precise time that initial parenting is so important: Laying a solid foundation, clearly differentiating right from wrong.

Just about then, we tell them that Santa’s not real after all. “We lied to you, kids, but don’t you start lying to us!”  They see us smile, yet they do not see anyone get in trouble for our major, deliberate deception played upon their feelings for years. Though during that same period, those kids had been warned often not to ever be dishonest … hey, what’s up with this?

Single Dadhood.

I raised my kids alone since they were just 4 and 2. My adversity to lying was passed on to them by both verbal requirements and by example. The three of us enjoyed a wonderful childhood together, continue reading…

In the US, one of the first things we teach our kids is that lying is acceptable.

How ignorant are we?

 
It was early December, and we had been a single-parent household for about three years. My daughter, EK [for privacy], was in kindergarten, and loving it.

It was mid-afternoon when I heard the school bus pull-up out front to drop-off EK. When she walked in the front door, though, the first thing I heard was crying.

On the bus ride home, she explained, some friends and she got into a discussion about the upcoming Christmas holidays. A short time into it, the discussion made its way to Santa Claus, followed by a few friends mentioning that there is no real Santa Claus.
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