The Secret of Santa Clause

Lachoneus is 8 years old. He is typically satisfied with what Ster and I teach him. The answers we supply.
Tiberias is 6 years old and not as teachable. And this year he was asking the hard questions about Santa's existence. "If there is no such thing as real magic in the world then how does Santa's sleigh fly?!"

I never wanted to lie to my kids about Santa. Before Ster and I had to deal with this I knew we had to decide how we were going to do Christmas for the kids. I considered doing no Santa from the git go and focus on the true meanings of Christmas.
But in the end we decided that the best option was Santa Clause. Why? Because 1) most American children are taught about Santa in their own homes and any child who isn't taught that ruins the fun for other children. 2) It's fun to play that there is a Santa.

We only kept it going to long with Luke because he has this adorable child spirit and belief system. He is humble and teachable and happy.
So when Luke asked a couple years ago "Is Santa real?" I replied "Some people believe in Santa and some people don't. You decide what you believe." That worked great. He was happy and he chose to believe.

But this year both boys were pushing me to tell them the truth. Tiberias may be 6 but he is only in Kindergarten. I don't want him telling a single friend the truth about Santa!


So last night Sterling and I had a talk with the boys. I was nervous because I didn't want it to seem to them like "Hey boys, guess what, we have lied to you your whole life." I wanted it to be special like I have heard of other parents doing. A passing down a secret that only those old enough in spirit could be  apart of and help keep the magic alive for the younger children.

So I made sure to do all the talking. I didn't tell Sterling that...I didn't want to hurt his feelings. But he is not as gentle about these sort of things.

My boys were not upset. They took it great and agreed to not tell other children. They agreed to help keep the magic alive for Athena, friends at school and cousins when we got to Grandma's soon.

I am so glad that is over!

And I am so proud of my boys.

Poor Unhappy Tiberias

Tiberias has done so very well since school started. I'm talking about his behavior, how he reacts to situations. However, when we allow a lot of sugar into his diet his behavior goes immediately down hill again.

He always has this look on life that it's not fair. He makes an angry sound any time I say he needs to do something that he doesn't wish to do. If it's time to put on shoes to leave for school he gets angry. If it's time to go to bed...he gets angry.

But it's worse when he is on sugar. He can't control his actions so he throws anger fits. He is mad at everyone and the world should change to suite him.

I am very worried that he will have this his whole life. Sterling is not worried about  it. We have tried and tried to teach him to be thankful, to be happy and act calmly. Impossible.
Some children have such strong wills and sense of being right that they are not teachable.
If it were another child, even Luke or Athena, they would learn and grow from what we are trying to teach. But Tiberias is not one of those children.

I bet in life his will and stubbornness and confidence in himself will help him with some things. However, not being teachable is a fault. And looking at life as not being fair and that IT should change for him. Those two things will really be a negative in his adult life.

We continue to try and teach Ty to be happy. However, I pray that as he gets older he will realize it on his own and be able to change so he can be happy with life.  He learns about life only when it seems to him that he taught himself. He trusts himself.