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My parents never lied to me. They taught me how to read and critically observe my surroundings. They introduced me to the library and encouraged me to use it.

My parents never lied to me. They taught me how to read and critically observe my surroundings. They introduced me to the library and encouraged me to use it. When they discussed controversial subjects with their peers, they did not ask me to leave the room. They never preached or lectured to me, but often questioned my understanding. When difficult subjects arose, they offered clear and logical discourse. We sometimes disagreed, but they were always willing to listen and discuss. They introduced me to new ideas and allowed me to do the same for them. .

giorgioz 5y ago
What did your parents told you about Santa Claus or other children mythical creatures when you were a child?
- lkramer 5y ago
  Not op, but a parent. When my kid was young we left that question deliberately vague. I didn't want him to be the kid who goes around and says in Kindergarten "my dad says Santa Clause doesn't exist", at the same time deliberately encouraging a belief into something I know is not true felt morally wrong, so when he asked if Santa is real I woulf typically answer along the lines of "I'm not sure, what do you think?" I don't remember ever believing in Santa when I was a kid, but I also didn't grow up in anglo sphere where that question seems quite important the growing up process.
  - procombo 5y ago
    Similar here. When they were two we explained that Santa was as real as Mickey Mouse. They got it immediately. They know the mouse stands for something, and so does Santa. We have fun with it all. Christmas season is so much easier when you don't have to compete with a fictional, fat, jolly, magic man. The spirit behind it has value, and we celebrate that, along with other traditions.
  - entropyie 5y ago
    I rarely lie to my children. I always encouraged my children not to go around saying "there is no Santy/Santa". But at the same time, I really resent the omnipresent peer pressure from other adults to actively maintain the lie for their precious one's benefit. They would never expect their Muslim/Hindu friends to so this, but as an atheist, all you get is disapproving looks.
    - procombo 5y ago
      It's a game, one I don't play, but if you ruin kid fun of course you'll get eyerolls... regardless of your background. My recovery is just to own it, and say that I may not believe anymore, but "I'm proud of you sweety for believing". Kids won't take that as condescending cause the notion of Santa disbelievers is built-in. I think my kid flat out told their friends at pre-school that Santa Clause died. Which lead to some very interesting conversations. We watched the cartoon film Klaus on Netflix (would recommend) and that's how they internalized it. =)
  - kwhitefoot 5y ago
    > I didn't want him to be the kid who goes around and says in Kindergarten "my dad says Santa Clause doesn't exist", My eldest actually did that in kindergarten (barnehage) except that he apparently didn't justify it as being my opinion but a simple fact. When my wife went to pick him up one day she was very politely asked to explain to him that this caused some distress to some of the other children. She did that, he understood and kept his opinions on the subject to himself. > I don't remember ever believing in Santa when I was a kid, but I also didn't grow up in anglo sphere where that question seems quite important the growing up process. Not Anglosphere, more specifically US I think. I'm 66 and from England, I don't recall any of my childhood friends ever behaving as though they believed in Father Christmas and I'm even more confident that they would not have later claimed to their children that he existed. As far as I can remember I always knew that Christmas presents came from parents and relatives; after all most of the packages had cards on them saying things like 'Love to .. from auntie ..'.
- bin_bash 5y ago
  When my daughter is old enough to ask I'm just going to tell her it's a story just like Frozen that we like to play pretend around. I don't see why she has to be misled into thinking Santa is real in order to celebrate Christmas like any other kids. Kids are incredible at pretending!
nirui 5y ago
If I'm allowed to guess, your parents must be very smart. In the article, the author wrote > As a parent, though, I’ve discovered that there’s a fine line between omission and deception. I found that, discovering and maintaining the fine line requires significant amount of knowledge and life experience. Often, only the wise ones knows how to respond to those challenging questions appropriately. Sadly, many parents I know of struggles when facing difficult inquiries from their kids, so they end up telling lies upon lies just to send their kids away (in another words, to escape from the question). Take my parents for example, back when I was still a child, when I asked them how I was born, the two typical answers they offered were: 1) "We picked you up near the trash can", or 2) "You'll figure it out yourself when you're older". They also used this escape strategy when ever I ask them something they don't or unable to provide answer to. As result, I realized it fairly quickly in a young age that my parents might not be a reliable source of information. If I'm a parent, I would probably never escape the questions like that. Some kids are smart and curious, parents need to help them to navigate in this sea of knowledge, instead of play funny games with them when the kid is actually seeking for help. By the way, I think "how I was born?" is actually a good test question for parents. You can figure out many things by simply observe how the parents react to this question. Smart parents can often quickly figure out a fitting metaphor that satisfies the curious kid, and at the same time without bring up the awkward (and hard to understand) concept of sex. On the other hand, I literally saw some parents doing weird hand gestures in front their kid trying to explain the detail, please don't do this, it's embarrassing and the kids probably will not understand.
- SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
  > If I'm a parent, I would probably never escape the questions like that. The best laid plans
operator-name 5y ago
How do you believe you turned out? Are you <general positive emotional wellbeing>?

giorgioz 5y ago

What did your parents told you about Santa Claus or other children mythical creatures when you were a child?

lkramer 5y ago
Not op, but a parent. When my kid was young we left that question deliberately vague. I didn't want him to be the kid who goes around and says in Kindergarten "my dad says Santa Clause doesn't exist", at the same time deliberately encouraging a belief into something I know is not true felt morally wrong, so when he asked if Santa is real I woulf typically answer along the lines of "I'm not sure, what do you think?" I don't remember ever believing in Santa when I was a kid, but I also didn't grow up in anglo sphere where that question seems quite important the growing up process.
- procombo 5y ago
  Similar here. When they were two we explained that Santa was as real as Mickey Mouse. They got it immediately. They know the mouse stands for something, and so does Santa. We have fun with it all. Christmas season is so much easier when you don't have to compete with a fictional, fat, jolly, magic man. The spirit behind it has value, and we celebrate that, along with other traditions.
- entropyie 5y ago
  I rarely lie to my children. I always encouraged my children not to go around saying "there is no Santy/Santa". But at the same time, I really resent the omnipresent peer pressure from other adults to actively maintain the lie for their precious one's benefit. They would never expect their Muslim/Hindu friends to so this, but as an atheist, all you get is disapproving looks.
  - procombo 5y ago
    It's a game, one I don't play, but if you ruin kid fun of course you'll get eyerolls... regardless of your background. My recovery is just to own it, and say that I may not believe anymore, but "I'm proud of you sweety for believing". Kids won't take that as condescending cause the notion of Santa disbelievers is built-in. I think my kid flat out told their friends at pre-school that Santa Clause died. Which lead to some very interesting conversations. We watched the cartoon film Klaus on Netflix (would recommend) and that's how they internalized it. =)
- kwhitefoot 5y ago
  > I didn't want him to be the kid who goes around and says in Kindergarten "my dad says Santa Clause doesn't exist", My eldest actually did that in kindergarten (barnehage) except that he apparently didn't justify it as being my opinion but a simple fact. When my wife went to pick him up one day she was very politely asked to explain to him that this caused some distress to some of the other children. She did that, he understood and kept his opinions on the subject to himself. > I don't remember ever believing in Santa when I was a kid, but I also didn't grow up in anglo sphere where that question seems quite important the growing up process. Not Anglosphere, more specifically US I think. I'm 66 and from England, I don't recall any of my childhood friends ever behaving as though they believed in Father Christmas and I'm even more confident that they would not have later claimed to their children that he existed. As far as I can remember I always knew that Christmas presents came from parents and relatives; after all most of the packages had cards on them saying things like 'Love to .. from auntie ..'.
bin_bash 5y ago
When my daughter is old enough to ask I'm just going to tell her it's a story just like Frozen that we like to play pretend around. I don't see why she has to be misled into thinking Santa is real in order to celebrate Christmas like any other kids. Kids are incredible at pretending!

nirui 5y ago

If I'm allowed to guess, your parents must be very smart. In the article, the author wrote > As a parent, though, I’ve discovered that there’s a fine line between omission and deception. I found that, discovering and maintaining the fine line requires significant amount of knowledge and life experience. Often, only the wise ones knows how to respond to those challenging questions appropriately. Sadly, many parents I know of struggles when facing difficult inquiries from their kids, so they end up telling lies upon lies just to send their kids away (in another words, to escape from the question). Take my parents for example, back when I was still a child, when I asked them how I was born, the two typical answers they offered were: 1) "We picked you up near the trash can", or 2) "You'll figure it out yourself when you're older". They also used this escape strategy when ever I ask them something they don't or unable to provide answer to. As result, I realized it fairly quickly in a young age that my parents might not be a reliable source of information. If I'm a parent, I would probably never escape the questions like that. Some kids are smart and curious, parents need to help them to navigate in this sea of knowledge, instead of play funny games with them when the kid is actually seeking for help. By the way, I think "how I was born?" is actually a good test question for parents. You can figure out many things by simply observe how the parents react to this question. Smart parents can often quickly figure out a fitting metaphor that satisfies the curious kid, and at the same time without bring up the awkward (and hard to understand) concept of sex. On the other hand, I literally saw some parents doing weird hand gestures in front their kid trying to explain the detail, please don't do this, it's embarrassing and the kids probably will not understand.

SV_BubbleTime 5y ago
> If I'm a parent, I would probably never escape the questions like that. The best laid plans

operator-name 5y ago

How do you believe you turned out? Are you <general positive emotional wellbeing>?