Alphabet Soup by Melissa Doyle

Author:Melissa Doyle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SEL000000, FAM034000
ISBN: 9781742696195
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2014-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

Little White Lies

‘He’s been!’ There is no better sound to wake you up than the kids shrieking with delight on Christmas morning, even if it is 5.30.

Finding their stocking stashed with presents is obviously the highlight, but hunting for evidence that it really was Santa who had snuck in the back door (we don’t have a chimney) and left their goodies comes a pretty close second.

Like diligent little detectives in PJ’s, they check the beer has been drunk, the biscuits eaten and the carrots munched on. The few stray reindeer whiskers left in the water bowl closed the case. Once again, there was no doubt that the fat man in the red suit had delivered on his promise.

But what happens when the investigators become less like the team from The Famous Five and more like the gang on CSI? What do you say when they start asking the tough questions and the evidence no longer stacks up? How as a parent do we explain to our son that his mate Timmy is wrong—no matter what his big brother told him—and Santa is real?

And should we?

At seven, the questions started. Until then Nick had been happy to go along with the magic of Christmas, Easter and even the Tooth Fairy.

Of course she is real, I assured him. As if Mummy or Daddy would get out of bed in the middle of the night to fish some stinky, gross, blood-encrusted tooth out from under his pillow. As if we could do it without waking him! More importantly, as if we’d even want to!

He bought it. Phew.

He has, however, worked out that eating the crusts on bread does not make your hair curly; no matter how crazy a face he pulls, a change in the wind will not make it freeze; spinach does not give you muscles; and walking on the cracks in the footpath has not harmed his back in any way.

I’m not really sure why we tell these little porkies to our kids. The injection won’t hurt; the grocery shopping will only take ten minutes; and visiting the dentist is fun. My parents spun the same stories to me. Maybe repeating them is just in my parenting DNA. Some traditions are part of who you are, right or wrong.

It’s a coming of age when our children no longer have blind faith in everything we say. While I’m glad their inquisitive minds are working overtime on these matters of international importance, part of me is sad that this chapter is coming to an end.

So we told our son Santa only comes to those who believe. No matter what your age, do any of us really want to take that risk?

There is no harm done by clinging to a little bit of the fairytale. I know he no longer believes a giant rabbit leaves chocolate at Easter, and I know he found my stash of Christmas wrapping paper that was identical to Santa’s and put two and two together. But I know, like me, he’s happy to hang on to the gorgeous fantasy.

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