Destroying Innocence

Just a quick note to tell you how I completely crushed the innocence of my 10 year old daughter, Amelia.

While sitting around the table, working on Christmas presents, I decided that Enoch and Amelia (12 and 10 1/2) were old enough to hear the big, fat truth about the guy in red. I asked Enoch and Amelia if they knew about Santa, and Enoch said, "Yeah, I've known for a while. Nathan told me a long time ago." Amelia, stunned, said "What do you mean?" "Well, there's no ONE PERSON that is Santa. Santa is actually the spirit of giving that is in all of us. When you're little, the best way to show a child is by using a wonderful, jolly, bearded man to represent this. But, now that you're older, I just wanted to make sure you know. I also wanted to know if you guys want to help fill the stockings and set out the presents this year?" Enoch was eccstatic, saying "I was going to write you a letter and ask you if I could!!" Amelia simply said "Oh. I wondered why I found the boxes from the fruit snacks (we had put in their stockings the previous year) in the basement. I never ate them because I always wondered how old the food was, so I always threw it away."

We kept working a while, then I said, "Do you guys want to know how I learned about the Easter Bunny?" Amelia's face was totally blank and she said, "What do you mean?".

Time froze for just a moment.

Do I let my beautiful, innocent, 10 yr old girl remain in fairytale land a little longer, or do I bring my huge massive boot down to crush her little innocence into a million pieces. "Uhhhhh. The Easter Bunny isn't real either, Mimi."

Big Boot.

"It ISN'T?!" She said, mortified. I might as well have brought in a cute bunny and savagely beat it to death in front of her.

Maybe it's the Asperger's that makes her sweetly gullible, or maybe just because she's related to my side of the family (remind me to tell you about optional stop signs), but while she finally grasped the concept of Santa, apparently it stopped there.

"The Tooth Fairy, however is very real." I replied. She seemed content in knowing that.

You'll probably be seeing us on Dr. Phil.

Merry Christmas!

Tanya