A few days ago I blogged about why I thought we shouldn't bring up our children to believe in Father Christmas. I find it is quite a hot topic. In The Guardian Annalisa Barbieri defends the stance of encouraging this belief. One of my three arguments against is that it is lying to our children. Annalisa defends this by quoting a psychotherapist who suggests we should not think of it as lying, but "about stimulating the imagination, creating fantasy and not always making the world concrete. We all need to know how to do this in order to have an imagination and to explore our own creativity." That's great! Kids must do this. They will catch on quickly. When they deny hitting their sibling or taking sweets from the shop, and are found out, when they say, "I wasn't lying, I was just using my imagination and exploring my creativity," that will be OK then.
Actually I think many grown-ups have difficulty telling the difference between reality and imagination. So just as a help, concerning television:
Eastenders is not reality.
I'm a Celebrity... is reality, but not as we know it.
The News is reality mixed with confrontational interviews and opinions of the reporters.
In the Night Garden - well, I can't make head nor tail of this on the few occasions I've watched it with my two year old granddaughter. Why does the roundabout go round and bits grow up out of it? What is the point of the Pontipine family (have I spelt that right?). Why does that little train shoot round every so often? Why does Maccapacca have a zimmer frame? And how did they persuade Derek Jacobi to do the voice over?
Maybe this is reality and somewhere in darkest rural England is a wood where it all actually happens. If anyone is wandering in a wood and sees the airship, do let me know.
It is official - you have lost it.....!!!
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