Should Parents Lie?

Should Parents Lie?

Even though we now know that fictional characters
such as Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny do not exist, we were very excited about the activities associated with them as children. Part of the innocence of our younger years was due to our obliviousness to the real world  realities. For this reason, parents should lie to their kids about the existence of Santa Clause and other holiday characters. Parents telling these little white lies serve no other purpose except to see their children get excited and smile. No child has ever grown up to be a criminal because their parents lied about the existence of Santa Clause. The experiences associated with these characters create memories that the family can cherish for an entire lifetime. I am almost positive that all of our parents or guardians have pictures from our first Christmas. Not being able to sleep on Christmas Eve due to the anticipation of what would be under the tree the next morning and shredding the wrapping paper off of what was there is something we can all relate too. Wondering how Santa was going to fit down the chimney and how he would make it to every other child's house before morning were thoughts we all had laying in bed on Christmas Eve. Can you imagine how your Christmas mornings would have been without these signature holiday traditions?  As children would we have really understood and appreciated all of the hard work and effort that went into the gifts we received for Christmas anyway?  Other characters such as the Tooth Fairy were also essential to our childhood. Why would anyone be excited about losing teeth? We all cried and were afraid when our teeth began falling out until we learned that we would be rewarded with money underneath our pillows. Going to school the next day bragging about the five dollar bill we retrieved from underneath our pillows was something we all looked forward to. Your parents placing this money under your pillow instead is not nearly as enjoyable. The Easter Bunny is another

fictional character with which several of the activities we had fun doing is associated with. Painting boiled eggs a variety of colors and rushing to the field where the eggs were hidden to collect more than your friends were some of the most fun activities of our childhood. If our parents would have told us the truth about these different characters it would ruin the entire spirit of the holidays for us. We would not enjoy movies such as the Polar Express which discusses a child's wild Christmas adventure to the North Pole. We also wouldn't be able to share these pivotal points in childhood with our friends. So is the knowledge of the true facts of these holidays really worth demolishing someone's childhood? Being exposed to what the holidays are really about would have robbed us of our childhood innocence. When we have children I am sure that majority of us will be helping our kids make cookies for Santa, putting money underneath their pillows, and painting eggs with to hide with them. This key experiences our how a family creates memories.