My parents used to leave a sandwich and cocoa for Santa as a snack for when he came down the chimney and left presents. In the morning the sandwich had a bite out of it and the cocoa was half-consumed.

But I had questions: how could Santa visit every house in the world on one single night? How did he get down the chimney? And the flying sleigh was not believable at all as a flying machine.

Yet I never considered that my parents “lied” to me, they helped me figure it out and encouraged me to question… with the exception of religion – that they wanted me to believe! But too late, the box of doubt was released in me and it all came under question.

Many skeptics are big fans of sci-fi, X-Files, Star Trek, but I think we mostly consider them literature, exercises in creativity… in essence; Fun. They fire the imagination and imagination leads to investigation, exploration and experimentation. Myths as literature are fine; as belief systems, they are very dangerous.

One of the grand kids was describing the known level of cleanliness to the other kid saying: “There are three types of clean: real clean, hospital clean, and Mongra-fied”

It was just one of the things popping up in the back of my head. But I guess parents tend to question their decisions a lot.

As far as atheists having a tough time, I know I certainly had a hard time in high school; I was too dumb to keep my mouth shut. I never expected I was would be so criticized for thinking differently (naive, I know). Hopefully, I will teach my kids to keep their mouths shut or stand up for themselves. But, then, my kids to turn out to be crazy jesus freaks…*shudder*.. what do I know?

Atheists have a tough time in society in general. But the only way to change that is to simply be good, rational, moral atheists and give everyone a chance to get used to us.

As for the fictions–why? I did not deprive my kids of the “tooth fairy” money. But we made a joke of it. Our tooth fairy was completely unreliable, never remembered, generally left the tooth, bumped over stuff, and, in short, drank. It was a game. Being Jewish-ish, we didn’t have to worry about Santa or Easter bunnies, but I NEVER let them do the hanukkah thing without reminding them that the Macabees weren’t heroes–they were thugs.

Raising your kids with truth is harder than playing the standard games with them. Yet very worth it.

They were also very upset that I wouldn’t let them put “From Santa” on his x-mas gifts.

I remember feeling betrayed when I learned all these things weren’t true (and even more portrayed about the jesus thing). It has me wondering, though, am I doing more harm than good? Will he be left out in school? One little part of me wonders… should I let my kids have Santa/Tooth Fairy/Easter Bunny?