Bah Humbug to you as well

Yesterday, I came across a blog post via Twitter that really made my blood boil. I immediately starting composing this post in my mind, planning on linking back to the post of evil. The more I thought about it though, the more I realized that by linking back to it, I would really just be driving more traffic to the blogger.

So, I'm not going to link to it but I am going to talk about it.

Essentially, the blogger doesn't want her child to believe in Santa Claus. So, she told her daughter the "truth" about Santa when she was 2. This is not the problem that I had with the post. It's her prerogative if she doesn't want her child to believe. She's free to raise her child however she wants.

My problem came with this: the blogger says that her daughter knowing the "truth" wasn't a problem until the child got to kindergarten and spilled the beans to her classmates. The blogger says that some of the kids in class cried when they were informed of the "truth" (quotes are mine) by her daughter. Then the blogger went on to say that she wasn't upset that her kid had ruined it for the other children. In fact, she was proud and even a little boastful. The way she wrote it, she was happy that her daughter had been able to ruin Santa for so many other kids.

Really? You're proud that you made 5 year old cry?

Because that's what she did. Her daughter didn't do anything wrong. Kids talk and they don't really know what the consequences of their talk will be. But her mother did know the consequences and she shouldn't be proud of them.

She doesn't want her child to believe in Santa. Fine. But I do want my kids to believe. I want them to believe as long as possible.

And she does not have any right to take that belief away from my children. She should have been a responsible parent and explained to her child that while they don't believe in Santa, other families do and that she shouldn't tell the other kids in her class that he wasn't "real". That it would hurt the other kids and would make them sad. In other words, she should have taught her daughter to be compassionate.

The blogger mentioned people being scarred by their parents "lying" to them about Santa. What? I was never scarred. In fact, the year I found out, I was so excited to help keep the tradition alive for my little brother. I'm betting that that is the case for most people. I don't think I've ever met anyone walking around with psychological scars because their parents let them believe in Santa.

I was worried about this since my daughter starting kindergarten this year. But it's proved to be an unfounded fear. No one in her class has ruined it for her and this is, by far, the year she has been most excited about her upcoming visit from the man in red.

Kids are kids for such a short time. How can an adult take pleasure in making that time even shorter? Grow up.

So, to that blogger I have this to say:

Remember, even the Grinch and Scrooge had a change of heart.