Santa?

On Saturday night, we went out with our neighbors to Fox Lake for a spaghetti dinner. I heard Santa was going to be there and thought what a great opportunity it would be for the kids to get to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas and not have to wait in a long line, like most public arenas for Santa. I would never go to the mall and wait in a huge line and have my kids have melt downs and try to contain them in a line! That would be a headache!


As you can see in the picture the whole family was able to sit on Santa's lap! That is because both Ellie and Anderson wanted nothing to do with Santa. As we were walking up to greet Santa Anderson started to cry and cling to me. Santa saw Anderson's anguish and told me that I could sit on his lap. I said that is quite alright, Anderson and I will stand here for the picture. Santa insisted that the picture would look better if I sat on his lap. I broke down and sat down on his lap. I know strange!!!!!!! If you look closely at the picture it looks like Santa's eyes are going to pop out from the weight of both Anderson and I.


After the whole dramatic experience of forcing our family to sit with Santa I thought why do we do this to our kids? Of coarse it is the obvious, to get a great festive picture, but why do we make our kids talk to a complete stranger and make them sit on his lap? When our children meet new people and we introduce them to our fellow friends we never have our children sit on this new acquaintances lap. That would be ridiculous if we had them do that! We just ask our children to politely say, "Hello."


In conclusion, if your child screams at the sight of Santa, I think your child is perfectly healthy and their cognitive skills are wonderful. In their mind they are making the connection that this is a stranger and I don't sit on strangers laps! Isn't that healthy? I guess I'm trying to make myself feel better about my kids screaming at the sight of Santa! HA! Merry Christmas!