Santa: The Controversy Continues

Ok, people, no fair getting into Great E-mail Debates when I am limited to the typing capacity of a cell phone. I'm borrowing Grandmother Diana's computer so that I can actually type my usual 100 wpm, rather than hunting and pecking on a keyboard the size of a pack of gum...

From the level of emotional investment in this conversation, you'd think that we'd announced our intention to raise the kids in the Heaven's Gate cult or something! I had no idea that I was starting this with that little post a couple of days ago. Wow.

I want you all to know that we are taking your arguments/debate points (both via e-mail and in person) into consideration (after all, I did say, "Any thoughts?" Oh, dopey me...). However, we are not raising these kids by committee. As ever, BJ and I will do what we think is right. If you disagree, I would invite you to have kids of your own and raise them however you want! I'm grateful to Grandma Susan, who said of us (in e-mail), "They are intelligent and loving parents who want only what is best for the kids."

Again, I would like to reiterate that if we choose to do something differently from the way you did it, we're not saying that you did something wrong. When BJ and I were kids, we didn't have 11 grandparents. So, the choices we might make with regard to gift giving may be different from the choices you made, when we had 4 grandparents a piece. (And by the way, my kids are totally lucky and blessed to have so many wonderful people in their lives who love them!!!) We rode all over creation, unbuckled, in the back of a station wagon. That my kids ride in car seats doesn't mean that I think you were a bad parent back then - it means that things have changed, and we're doing the best we can. We know that you did the best you could.

I am reminded of all the ideas I had about parenting before we had kids - my kids were never going to watch TV or eat fast food, for example. Well, my little Playhouse Disney Happy Meal addict would laugh if she knew how that idea had changed. Perhaps next year, when Mary Grace is old enough to want to have a relationship with Santa, our ideas about this will change. But for now, it's still something we're kicking around. And like I said, we'll take your thoughts into consideration, but don't get pissed off if/when we go our own way. And I promise that I'll have the same respect for your parenting decisions with your kids, past, present, and future.

Merry Christmas, damnit! :)
Amy

P.S. I continue to be astonished at how many people read this little blog. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for caring enough about us and our little family to take time out of your day to read what is going on with us, and for caring enough about my kids to have an opinion on how we're raising them. If you didn't care, you wouldn't bother to call us and tell us that we're horrible (Mimi!!), and you wouldn't bother to comment or e-mail, and it means a lot to me that you do care, even when we disagree. You are all Santas to me.