No Such Thing as Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy, or Easter Bunny.

** This is not meant to insult anyone, this is just my opinion after observations and deep thought. Please read this with an open mind and open heart. It means well, not harm.**

The holiday season is among us and I wanted to share a few thoughts.There is no such thing as Santa Clause. What!!? What do you mean!? This is the exact words I heard when Damien found out that there is no such thing as Santa. Andrew and I have decided to not incorporate certain beliesf into our holidays, tooth losing, or Easter Happenings (still window shopping for religion). Just like meat, we are going to leave it out. I know at first this sounds cruel. I think it is bizarre teaching children not to talk to strangers, and yet we encourage them to sit on a strangers lap to tell them what they want for Christmas. This morning on the radio, the host was saying that most first encounters with Santa Clause are scary and not handled well. He felt like his parents were handing him over to some outter space alien. I couldn't imagine just handing my child over to a perfect stranger and expecting them (my child) to be comfortable with it. So why do we expect them to be comfortable with a large man in a red suit in late December? To me this is even more frightening. Totally unintentional I am sure. I think that most parents don't even give it thought because that is what they were taught and this is to be expected. I understand this.

Gift giving is strange to me as well. Why is it a secret that we give our loved one (children) gifts for Christmas. Why do we tell the ones we love that most of these gifts are from Santa Clause. Please don't think that I am trying to take away imagination or being a negative nancy, I am only trying to understand why we lie to our children until they are old enough to understand that Santa is not real. Most children don't take this realization well. We also teach our children not to lie, and yet we turn around and lie to them for years. I will admit when Damien found out there was no Santa he was a bit upset. Really a crushing moment. I think of that and don't want Amar'e or any future children to have this experience. Once again, this is not meant to insult anyone. This is just my opinion and our way of doing things. I don't think that teaching your child about Santa makes you a bad parent, not at all. I just don't want to do it. Of course Santa is everywhere during the holiday season and I can't get away from that, so what I'll do is let Amar'e know that this is a fairy tale told for many years to children. It's not bad, it's fun, but not real, a tale.. I don't think we will do the whole Tooth Fairy, or Easter Bunny (still window shopping for religion) thing either. I'll have to give that a little more thought. I am sure we can come up with some other creative ways to have fun with these things.

**This is not meant to insult anyone, this is my opinion after observation and deep thought. It means well, not harm.**

Does anyone have any suggestions on Tooth fairy alternatives? Easter Bunny alternatives?

I found this horrible Santa Experience here. I'm sure that this happens more often then we think. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Potty Training...Take One

With Amar'e being 19 months old, Andrew and I have been thinking about starting to potty train her. I have to admit I still remember potty training Damien and I was expecting it to be just as easy. Yes, I said easy. For whatever reason Damien was an extremely easy baby and toddler. He was sleeping through the night in his own crib at eight weeks old, potty training was extremely easy, and he always went with the flow. I find that Amar'e is a different story. Last Wednesday, for the first time ever, Amar'e slept through the night in her own bed. It was amazing! I had a great amount of energy the next day because I wasn't woken up ten times by her to nurse or because she is flipping around restless in her sleep. For the most part, my children have been two totally different experiences. Maybe Damien somehow knew he had an extremely young mother and it would be easier for both of us to just go with the flow. Anyway, Amar'e is not so thrilled with this idea. At first I would sit her on the potty after a diaper change and she was fine with it. Now, she hates it. I am no longer able to get her anywhere near it. I'll ask her if she wants to try the potty again and this prompts her to yell and run over and kick it and say "NO"! Well, that answers that question. This is not going to be easy! Some people say that potty training is the worst. But, from my experience it was extremely easy, until now. So I am thinking that we will give it a couple months and see what her thoughts are about the potty then. But for now, this is what Amar'e thinks of her potty:

She thinks this is hilarious! Oh, so funny!

Does anyone have a tips or ticks to make this process go smoothly. As you know, we are into gentle parenting and want this process to be enjoyable for all parties. Feel free to leave a comment with inspirational tips! In the mean time, I am going to do some research.