the ethics of santa

p sure thats why people have kids though

p sure people have kids so that they can do the chores the parents no longer want to do

My dad used to rub a quarter into his elbow and make it disappear. It was better than santa claus, because you could watch the whole thing from start to finish. He used to steal our noses, too, but we could tell it was just his thumb he was showing us.

yeah I've never got the steal your nose thing, kids might be dumb but that looks nothing like a nose

I expect around age 6 or 7 is pretty normal. You're in first grade. Even if you have no older siblings to spill the beans to you, many of your classmates will have older sibs and they'll be quick to set you straight.

Santa's handwriting was suspiciously similar to my grandmother's.

lying to children is a shitty thing to do

It's normal to lie to children, because it can be a functional teaching tool. Everyone will be lied to all their lives and learning to detect lies is a useful skill. It generally starts with your parents lying to you in harmless and loving ways.

Where the "santa" line gets crossed for me is when adults lie to kids for selfish reasons, for the sole purpose of manipulating them as if they were dolls, not humans. The more powerful this need to manipulate is, the more the kid will resent the whole business when they find out they were being used.

my parents labeled gifts from santa but they didn't try very hard w/ the whole deception thing and i don't remember ever thinking the presents were actually from santa. (my dad insisted they were but his tone was super ironic.) so i don't really Get santa or how christmas is insufficiently magic w/out him but i don't think the lie is like hugely wicked or anything. as for coca-cola, consumerism, corporations hiring psychologist whores to teach them how best to manipulate small children into telling their parents they hate them if they don't get some sweatshop plastic bullshit, well yup; but that's year-round, and anyway don't worry the flood's coming.

the flipside of my parents not trying very hard to actually trick me is that they continued to label presents from santa (and my dad smirkingly continued to insist they were from santa) until i was like 14.

corporations hiring psychologist whores to teach them how best to manipulate small children into telling their parents they hate them if they don't get some sweatshop plastic bullshit

Nicely illustrates my point about manipulative adult lies to kids leading to harsh resentments.