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I call it, The Santa Claus Paradox

My kid believes in Santa, Elf on the Shelf, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny. To some extent, he believes in god. His relationship with each is pretty interesting.

To be honest, I am pretty sure I screwed up the Tooth Fairy thing. One night I was tired and fell asleep before I planted the money and tried to do a quick “plant”. He was suspicious and started an FBI like forensic analysis of the Tooth Fairy’s handwriting and concluded I was full of shit.

Sort of did the same with the Elf. He said “Buddy’s” drawings and handwriting looked a lot like mine.

Again, busted.

You will be relieved to hear Santa and the Easter Bunny are safe for now.

Now, I have never raised him with religion, never have taken him to church. His God knowledge is from friends at school and some stuff his mom told him (she is a recent convert to Islam). Our custody agreement prohibits her from giving religious education or “indoctrination”.

He currently hates God. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes this past December and cannot believe a god would torture a child with diabetes (his words). Without the back-story of Christianity he is free to question, reason and disagree without the fear of eternal damnation. I am completely confident he will reason out of that belief and have a firm foundation of reason and knowledge.

I listen, help him reason through his conversation but am determined he needs to figure this one out.

So, much like Santa and the Easter Bunny–in which he believes in with all his heart–someday the truth will come out. When it does, he will like most of us continue to enjoy the holidays in the spirit of family and community. He has a niece and a nephew that he can pass on the Elf tradition and hide eggs for.

I have always likened belief in religion very much like the belief in Santa. The major difference being, once you find out Santa isn’t real, Christmas continues. You still get gifts and a wonderful seasonal holiday.

Tell a Christian you’ve reasoned your way out of god/religion and you’re going to hell. Where all the most interesting people probably are anyway 😊

PS – I know some of you in this community don’t celebrate Christmas or other Pagan holidays. Good for you. I won’t debate that with you. Christmas is fun and so is Easter and I will use any excuse to cook a HUDGE meal for my family. We don’t say grace, but we do express gratitiude.

Gyanez 6 July 27
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9 comments

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0

The cure??? Don't put up a Christmas tree and give presents. Stop coloring Easter eggs. Stop putting money under his pillow when he looses a tooth. Your child believes if you reward his false belief with gifts.

0

On the holiday thing, I do not celebrate. This is because I now live alone. If I had a family it might be different but I would never pretend that December 25th was Jesus day.

0

Elf on a shelf? I don't know that one, the others Halloween, fall equinox (good time to party) Christmas, winter solstice northern hemisphere (good time to party) Easter, vernal equinox (good time to party) gee that was tough. And the rest of the summer good time to party. 🎉🎇

1

What you call a paradox, I call the chicken shit excuse. Up to us parents to keep a child in a state of magical bedazzlement, it is good for their development. But it is also up to us parents to protect our kids from the dangers of brainwashing by organized religions, something that starts very early on. So that is what being a parent is, we must do the hard choices at the appropriate time. there's no reason to not celebrate the gift exchange and the meals that happen during December, but I believe it is really stretching it too much to "express gratitude," my question is to whom do you express gratitude? It would be self serving to say I am grateful for mom's and my contribution to keep our family well fed and protected. And it would be a lie to thank "a higher power" when we all know there ain't one. That's why I ask, to whom do you express gratitude? It's not easy being a parent, choices must be made for the wellbeing of our family, our kids who are very impressionable at that early age and if we do not help them develop their reasoning skills and decision making skills, well, we have failed as parents, haven't we?

@Gyanez nice of you to have a family that contributes. In my case, when my kids were that young it was only my wife and I so I did thank my wife for everything she did, and I was nice enough to thank my kids for doing great at school, but that was it.

1

I got busted with the same tooth fairy snafu as you did. It all came apart after that. Both my kids are healthy skeptics. I think my boy is an atheist. My daughter goes in for some Chi-based woo, but neither go to a church of any kind. My son goes to a Buddhist temple with his buddy sometimes "because they have the best food". 😊

zeuser Level 9 July 27, 2020
0

How old is he?

2

I screwed up. I told my grandson that god was no more real than santa. He looked at me and said "santa isn't real?" Ah well, I got into trouble with my daughter in law, but, what the hell.

1

"I have always likened belief in religion very much like the belief in Santa. The major difference being, once you find out Santa isn’t real, Christmas continues. You still get gifts and a wonderful seasonal holiday. Tell a Christian you’ve reasoned your way out of god/religion and you’re going to hell."

Why should religion be different? Why should what others think matter?

skado Level 9 July 27, 2020
0

I'm curious abour how old he is?
btw-thisgot posted twice. might wanna delete one.

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