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25
Aug
It has recently come to our attention that your son’s account with with BunnyTooth Polar Enterprises was recently canceled. As he had been a cardmember in good standing until three nights ago, we were understandably concerned by his sudden departure from our Good List.
We quickly launched a thorough investigation into the probability that someone — namely, you — had tampered with his account. Our investigators began monitoring all suspicious activity in your area and have produced evidence that clearly shows that on the night of August 22 he woke briefly at 10:30 p.m. and asked why you were standing over his bed with your hand searching around underneath his pillow. Then, two nights later, on August 24 at approximately 9:30 p.m., you did knowingly and with absolutely no forethought for the harm it might cause, gently acknowledge your son’s nagging doubts and admit to him that you, in fact, had acted as the Tooth Fairy in order to make the milestone of losing his baby teeth “a little more special.”
When confronted with this deception, your son went on to demand if you were also the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the person who both mixed up a batch of magic “reindeer food” with him last Christmas Eve and then later, after he fell asleep, went back outside and made what looked like a bunch of hoofprints in said mixture of oatmeal, colored sugar, and glitter. You said that in the face of his direct questioning it was impossible to lie to him.
A representative for BunnyTooth Polar Enterprises has filed suit in Santa Barbara Superior Court on your son’s behalf stating breach of trust and emotional duress, requiring that you be responsible for damages and court costs.
We do appreciate that you held him while he cried his heart out, and assured him that you have lied about nothing else to him, up to and including faking a belief in “some guy with a white beard sitting on a throne up in the sky judging everybody” for his supposed benefit. We also acknowledge your patience, snuggling with him until he felt better and staying up with him way past his bedtime to play a game of Operation (which, we note with irony, “we” gave him last Christmas). But he’s only seven years old, for crying out loud, couldn’t you have stretched the truth for another year or two?
Disappointedly,
Ann Elf
Executive Account Manager
Disbelief Division
BunnyTooth Polar Enterprises, LLC
- Published by Eden M. Kennedy in: Main
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55 Responses to “Dear Mrs. Kennedy,”
Awww. Dude
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, growing up fucking SUCKS. I am personally sending your little guy every hug in the universe as he eases his way into Big Kid status.
Wait till he finds out about middle school.
My sister’s 2nd grade teacher told the class that Santa Claus did not exist right before Christmas Break. Talk about being crushed and ruining the holidays. For some reason that teacher was no longer at that school the following school year….
Learning the truth about Santa Claus/Easter Bunny/Tooth Fairy fakery remains one of THE most traumatic and heartbreaking experiences of my childhood. I was a hardcore believer, and it took a long time for me to get over the fact that my parents were capable of constructing huge lies and that they didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. However, no Christmas since “the truth” came out has ever been as magical as the ones when I still believed. I grieve the believing, and the loss of belief. I have no idea whether I’m going to come down on the side of childhood magic or brutal reality for my 1-year-old daughter.
I had Santa figured out in the first grade, and told no one but my decade-older sister. She told me that if I told my parents, I wouldn’t get presents any more. A few years later, I still hadn’t told them because I thought it would hurt their feelings.
I didn’t weep, but remember making my parents squirm with comments on the Easter Bunny’s penmanship, or why Santa wrapped my gifts in the same paper we used for Grandma’s present.
See, I figured out the Santa thing early, too, because we didn’t have a chimney, duh.
I had no idea he’d take it so hard, it was awful. However, no mention of it today, and all seems well . . . ?
We had the best book about the Tooth Fairy, ever. Basically:
- girl looses tooth and places it under her pillow
- girl sees her mom coming in to take the tooth but pretends to be asleep {me: Holy Cow! Way to preview the book before bedtime, Mom}
- girl goes to school the next day and tells all of her friends that HER mom is THE Tooth Fairy. Boy says nuh-uh, my Grandpa is THE Tooth Fairy because I saw him taking my tooth.
- girl tells mom. Mom tells her that the Tooth Fairy can assume the appearance of the people that said tooth-looser loves most, so as to not upset them by having a random person in their room at nighttime.
Mwa ha ha.
Heartbreaking and hilarious, but mostly heartbreaking. He seems to be doing okay you say, but how are you? I remember when my daughter leaned the truth and it about killed me.
Tina
http://www.thebiggertheyget.com
Aw, poor little guy. Kids are resilient, thankfully.
The jig was up for my parents when I awoke very early one morning to hear my parents quietly arguing about “where the tooth went,” and finding my missing incisor on the floor. I’d already had an idea, since the previous Christmas my mom used a different color ink to fill in my name on a pre-printed “letter from Santa.”
It’s probably no consolation now, but in 15 years he’ll think it’s hilarious.
Awww, that sucks. We never even got that – my husband refused to play along with the Santa/Tooth Fairy/etc. stuff, and my son figured it all out way too quickly. Now I make him pretend for me and I get all teary if he won’t, because I am very mature like that.
You are living one of my biggest fears-I know, get some real grown up fears already-and seeing the other responses makes me wonder if I should just squash the whole Santa thing now before handing my kids the “most traumatic experiences of their childhood.”
I already decided that Santa is getting too much credit for all the big gifts I hauled to the house. He’s gonna be giving the crappy gifts this year so Mommy can get all the glory.
Awww…man! I’m sorry it had to come to this…and with litigation no less!
My little girl is 2-and-a-half, and I wonder when I’ll be hauled before the court.
For what it’s worth, my mom always told me that Santa was a feeling that lives in your heart, and we STILL get things from Santa in our stockings (Granted, they come in a box with the other Christmas Presents, since we exchange gifts with my relatives over the miles now…)
But, I digress.
I hope you find a good lawyer.
~Momma
I’m pretty impressed with you (and your relationship with your son). My parents would have avoided the conversation. I can’t say that I really looked to them for a straight answer to anything growing up. If your son wasn’t ready to know what he probably already knew, he wouldn’t have asked you.
Even though our kids’ tears have the ability to break our hearts, I love that he was able to mourn these great myths in your arms – I think that his trust in you is stronger than ever for telling him the truth.
BTW, I didn’t have a chimney either. But I did have sisters and a brother who were able to make a huge racket putting presents under the tree while I *slept* upstairs.
Oh, I just hate this part of it all. Sometimes I wish we were like our friends, who never claimed Santa brought the gifts in the first place, but they do love the fun of it so very much…my first has taken the news just fine, so one down, two to go. Glad yours is already moving forward. See, he’s building some kind of good, future skills right there! -Kirsetin
Aw crap! Actually – I’m pretty sure my kids know the whole gig by now … and continue playing along for MY benefit. Man, I love them for that!
)
So dreading that day. Sorry you had to have it.
I’m feeling so bad for you for having to face this moment. We made a choice not to encourage these beliefs in our kids because we didn’t want to have to give them the truth and tell them we lied to them, even to give them their childhood magic. It sucked too. I wanted to watch them get wrapped up in the mystery and fun of it all, but I am glad now that I haven’t had to have this talk with them.
Oh lord. My 9 (almost 10) year old daughter still believes in Santa – all of the kids in her class do NOT believe and she FIGHTS LIKE CRAZY with them. She’s at a new school this year and I think we have to tell her – I don’t want her to be made fun of.
I love the magic of it all.
My 7 year old on the other hand told me he didn’t believe in the toothfairy OR Santa this week. Go figure.
Better for him to be the one to clue in his classmates than the one still insisting, “He is TOO real!” while everyone else snickers. Not that I would know anything about that.
Gasp!
NooooOOooOOoooOooo!
Ian’s already decided there will be no Santa Claus etc in this house. He favours the Julbok, the Swedish Christmas Goat.
I was 7 or 8 and found a stash of baby teeth on my dad’s dresser when looking for a rubber band. I realized that if one was fake, they all were. I had been suspicious because if we asked my mom if Santa/whatever was real she’d say “I believe in the spirit of Santa Claus”. COP-OUT! It was a rough day, but I still had two younger brothers.
Aw crap! I was wondering how long I’d have. My oldest is six now and the tooth fairy gets harder and harder to pull off…
We’ve given up the tooth fairy myth, but our boys (10 and 12) both still believe in Santa Claus. I think we’re going to have to bite the bullet and tell the 12 year old, though — how many 7th graders do YOU know who still believe?!
When we described ‘Father Christmas’ to Anna last Christmas, that he was going to come down our chimney and leave presents, she almost bit us with fear and refused to go downstairs without being carried because she thought some random stranger would be poking around her house…
What??!!! Whaddaya MEAN no Santa Claus???!!! I was well aware of the tooth-fairy scam, but… no Santa Claus???? Ah, hell… SOB
The Disbelief Division is cut throat. Don’t talk to them without counsel. Remind them of the years of careful present wrapping and subterfuge, and beg for the mercy of the court.
And whatever you do, DON’T plan him a surprise party anytime soon, liar liar pants on fire.
When I first found out that my parents were the ones putting presents under the tree, I freaked out. For some reason, I thought that even though there was no Santa, all the presents still came in the middle of the night. As such, I was convinced that my parents left me alone to go to K-Mart of wherever in the middle of the night on Christmas to buy me presents.
This lead to me begging them to stay home with me, even if they didn’t buy me any presents.
They probably should have just ran with that and save themselves some money.
I wasn’t gonna comment but I’ve got a pretty traumatic/funny one. I found out about Santa when I was 6 and my “friend” Billy told me. The thing is in the same conversation he explained about sex (a 6 year old’s idea of it anyway) and I was so bussy going “nu uh why would any one do that” that I didn’t even think about his Santa accusation until later. Let me tell you these are not 2 topics you want to associate (blush)
oh my god, I love how you told this. Brilliant!
My daughter figured it out when she realized that the TF and mommy had strikingly similar hand-writing.
Then she went to her (very religious) Nana’s house for Easter Dinner and announced “I don’t believe in the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy OR God.”
Hey, I’m just proud that she lumps them all, equally unbelievable, together.
Aww, Poor Jackson. That’s a shitty thing to go through.
I figured it out when I was 5. I always asked Santa for different things than I asked my parents for. He NEVER delivered and they always did (within reason). I figured he either didn’t exist or he was an asshole. I don’t remember it being too traumatic on me though. Christmas was still magical and fun. Plus we left out cookies for my parents and they put the gifts out in the middle of the night anyway. So nothing really changed. I always liked that they kept things the same even after I knew.
Rough night for Jackson, sure, but much rougher night for you! Sorry it all blew up so soon. My mom and I still pretend for each other. I’m almost 40. We both know we’re pretending but we don’t like to talk about it.
Sorry it had to come to this so soon. My husband told our oldest when he was in 4th grade so that he wouldn’t be made fun of at school. Wow. I will remember the look on his face forever. And, I don’t want to freak you out, but I don’t think he will ever forgive us. Oh, and around here Santa writes with my left hand. It’s squiggly, but, hey! He’s hundreds of years old!
Tragic and Hilarious. How do you manage to combine both in one post? I was in second grade when Stephanie Cory held me up against the wall at Historic Central School in Lake City Iowa and yelled for all to hear that Santa Claus was really Lenny Snyder, the insurance salesman in our town. I have photos from my childhood of Santa Claus visiting our house on christmas eve and sure enough, it’s Lenny Snyder with his signature green tinted glasses. I will never forgive that guy.
I remember figuring out the Tooth Fairy mythology based on the fact that not everybody on my block was getting the same rate for their teeth. Me and my brother got dimes, and quarters, while two houses down she was handing out half and silver dollars.
I tried to make it work out like Santa, maybe their teeth were better than ours, and better teeth were worth more money.
Once, when a group of us kids sat around discussing these mythical figures in our lives, I remember there being one little girl who said she’d never been visited by the tooth fairy. If she didn’t exist for everybody, then how could she exist? And again, what was with the unfair payout ratios?
My brother caught on with a whole lot less introspection. One night when he was probably seven or eight, he lost a tooth and didn’t tell mom and dad. That night he put the tooth under his pillow like he’d always done, but in the morning it was still there.
As for Santa, it took him much, much longer to let go of the myth. He was still trying to stay up all night to catch a glimpse of him when he was 11. It never hurt that our dad would scatter the decorative logs, and leave a boot print in the bottom of the fireplace every year.
WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
No Santa OR Tooth Fairy??????
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Mrs. Kennedy, PLEASE tell me there has been a mistake…puhlease!
I’m a teacher. At the end of term last Christmas, one Yr 3 kid suddenly said “Miss, isn’t it true that Santa Claus is dead? My cousin Liam says so and he’s 12″. All the kids looked at me expectantly….
Yeah, we’re not doing any of that. This year, we still get a pass, because he’s only two. Next year, There Will Be Questions, and I’m not looking forward to it.
I never liked the Easter Bunny anyway, because I hate Easter candy for the most part; presents and Christmas cookies are so much better. And the Tooth Fairy was all right, but I never gave her much thought. But I think we’ll still put presents out for Christmas morning, at least for a few years, because that’s so fun.
oh, yuck. i am so not looking forward to the day i have to hash it out with the 6 yr old. i think he already knows, but he’s in denial. he loves surprises and mysteries, and just wants to enjoy the myth a little longer. he asked me a carefully phrased question once, one that gave me some wiggle room, and i asked him what he would like to believe. he chose to believe in santa. i hope that’s not going to backfire and make it worse one day.
he hasn’t lost any teeth yet, so no tooth fairy…and we don’t usually do easter baskets, but last year my sister was here with her kids, who get baskets every year. surprise! my kids suddenly had baskets too! we’re inconsistent as hell. how do we get them to believe anything we do or say, much less the stuff we make up?
Goodbye little innocent boy child.
I guess he will eventually talk about this horrible turn of events with his therapist…at least that’s what my daughter plans to do..(oh wait, I think that’s what I talk about with MY therapist)
We should have gone with the Swedish Christmas goat!
My 9-year-old still believes. We are walking a fine line here before he’s just a geek at school for still believing. Do we initiate the conversation or just wait till he calls us on it?
My parents didn’t do the Santa thing or the tooth fairy or anything else with childhood magic. My husband was adamant that we do it. He wanted the magic for our kids. But I feel like I am flying blind!
That’s a total “being a parent” story right there. I accidentally told a friend’s younger brother Santa didn’t exist and I have never felt so bad in my life. I think as a result, I over do the “Santa woke me up last night with those hooves on the roof!” thing to my neices and nephews.
You know…not that it matters. We never had the Tooth Fairy or the Easter Bunny in our house growing up. And, I figured out the Santa myth from a TV commercial (of all places). I remember asking my mom about it, and I wasn’t upset. I thought it was kinda cool.
Since I was the oldest of four (I only had one or two siblings at that time, though), it was part of my “job” as the big sister to keep the dream alive for my little siblings. Plus, Mom threatened me with the “and if you tell, you really WON’T get anything from Santa” threat.
My daughter (2.5, as mentioned above) is an only child, so when the time comes, I’ll have to figure out a different way to make her feel like part of the plot.
You have my mother and I laughing hysterically right now.
Oh, the guilt! At our house last May, the tooth fairy just totally forgot to show up one night, and we said that she was off for Cinco de Mayo.
Dear eldest son (6),
I appreciate that the exciting revelation of the non-existence of santa, the easter bunny (or bells – half French) and the tooth fairy (or tooth mouse) has caused a total paradigm shift in your universe. In my favour. And for this I am grateful.
I would however be even more grateful if you could refrain from stage whispering The Truth to me at all opportunities in front of younger son (4).
Yours,
Your mother
(ps remember I give the presents so you better listen)
OK, this is the best Fussy post ever. I am going to put on my “writing well” tshirt in your honor today and email this to all my other dream crushing mother friends.
Mrs. K,
I still think of your note to Jack re running off w/Jackson (I think we can make it work!) Have you thought of a career in fake letter writing? Thanks for the laugh.
First time reader and commenter just blog hopping and happily landing here. Brilliant post – and you look like a Kennedy Onassis based my quick scroll down.
Though you have a staggering number of comments I feel compelled to add mine because JUST THIS MORNING my 7 year old busted me on being the tooth fairy. I told him that me, as his mom, was my secret identity and that I am actually the tooth fairy. He said he “knew it” and wanted to know what I had done with his tooth. He reclaimed it, or tried to. I said he had the money and I was keeping the tooth. I told him not to tell his sister about my secret life. Fat chance. Cheers.
You are featured on Five Star Friday:
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/08/five-star-friday-edition-21.html
This is just brilliant. Heart-breaking, but brilliant.
Kim
from The Yummy Mummy Cooks Gourmet
Our kids think that presents are delivered by some guy in a beat up old van w/no windows, and if they happen to catch him in the act he will take them in exchange for the gifts and sell them to a carnival.
We worship a different God than the rest of you.
Oh. Em. Gee.
Mrs. K, you make me laugh! Seriously, BunnyTooth Polar Enterprises, LLC? Awesome.
And heyjoe, you pretty funny, too!
heartbreaking!
Now I can’t get the REM song “Losing My Religion” out of my head.
SO sad, and the moment of revelation quickly approaches in our house as well. It’s my eldest (7yo) who won’t give up the ghost. My youngest doesn’t really believe anymore, but graciously accepts all tokens and gifts.
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