Surviving the Domestic Jungle

The other day my oldest, Avery, asked me if Santa was really real. Crap! I had been dreading that question for years. I didn’t know what to say so I just said “Why?” I don’t even recall what she said….We obviously both got distracted. Anyway, I am glad she is questioning ridiculous notions but I’m surprised she questioned Santa before she questioned the Easter Bunny. A six foot Rabbit dressed in human clothes that breaks into your home and leaves candy seems a little suspect to me. I suppose a portly older man who lives with a bunch of elves in a snowed in paradise and climbs in and out of chimneys all night seems a little more logical. Ahhh, the lies we tell our children. Everything we tell our children is a lie! Tooth Fairy! Easter Bunny! Santa Clause! All lies! While we tell them all of this with an innocent intention, it has to cause some confusion or at the very least a sense of betrayal. I don’t remember feeling that way but Im sure on some level it effects kids. Every year I frighten the crap out of my kids and make them sit on a strange man and giant rabbits lap. That would scare me! But those pictures are so darn cute I have a feeling this may be the last year of a Santa Clause belief for my oldest. You always have that one kid at school who ruins it for the innocent believers but that is pretty much how the rest of life tends to go. I guess its best to have all fantasies of magic crushed and all the lies revealed earlier rather than later in life!