Ally lost another tooth the other day. Like she has done for the past couple of years that she has lost a tooth, she put the tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy. I remembered later yesterday that "the tooth fairy" forgot to leave money for the tooth. I called John to ask him to fix this since he would get home before me.
John: Don't even worry about giving her moneyThat was upsetting to hear; I wanted her to keep believing and I couldn't believe that John messed this up for her!
Me: why? Did you tell her there is no tooth fairy?
John: Yes
Ally, with her usual entitlement attitude, was complaining in the morning to John that the tooth fairy did not leave her any money- again! (the tooth fairy had forgotten many times to leave money before, but the tooth fairy did remember and would sneak the money afterward. Ally just kept missing the money even though it's been under her pillow every time!
John: I asked her, "you know there's no such thing as the tooth fairy right?"Ally: Yeah, I know
John: so if you knew, why do you keep expecting money from the tooth fairy? You know that the Easter bunny's not real either, right?
Ally: Yeah, I've known for a while.
John: who else do you think doesn't really exist?
Ally: well, I know that Santa isn't real.
John: so, you have known all along and you kept expecting presents anyway?
Neither of us realized that she has known this, although we don't know how long she has known.She has not mentioned anything about it and she seemed to have believed this past Christmas. She even commented on how she heard Santa walking to the tree to leave the presents.
So, we have thought that we have been playing along with these childhood characters, and playing their parts pretty well. But this new revelation from Ally made me realize not only that Ally has known about their non-existence, but that Ally, has also been playing us along!
I remember believing in Santa when I was little and what a disappointment it was to learn that he is not real. What a fool I have been, believing what I have been told by adults that he was real! But as we become parents, we assume the role of continuing the legacy of lies; covering up for Santa, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, and every other character. It's like the lie that will never die and will just keep recycling as our children and our children's children become parents.
This business of lies is a dirty job, but we all have to do it- eventually.
2 comments:
i told the monkey i wanted to raise our kid sans the lies of fictional characters we grew up in. but he fears our kid might get in trouble at school for shouting "sheep" instead of "wolf." yes, it truly is a crazy world.
this santa clause business is rubbish. we were able to convince the kids about santa this christmas and once they got their presents we realized they were like "thanks santa!" and no "thanks mom and dad" :(
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