Comments | jbcs: Family issues with x-mas

countessof_roth in jbcs

Family issues with x-mas

Dec 26, 2010 18:55

So my family is still Catholic.

I stopped by my folk's house Friday night on my way to shul and as a parting shot my mother starts cooing to my 8 month old " SANTA CLAUS is coming tomorrow Roland! Tomorrow SANTA will be bringing you gifts Words cannot express how FURIOUS this made me. However, I kept my cool. I calmly asked my mother to not do ( Read more... )

family, family reaction

Comments 18

shadow1869 December 27 2010, 01:38:35 UTC

Man that is so awfullllllllll. *hugs*

threnody December 27 2010, 01:39:35 UTC

That sucks. :\ Maybe having a sit-down discussions with your parents at some point that's not Christmas would go over better? Or just go see them at New Year's next year instead of Christmas.

(The comment has been removed)

countessof_roth December 28 2010, 05:48:06 UTC

See that's the thing too! When I wasn't Jewish, when I was still well, agnostic, I told my mom that when I had kids there would be no "Santa" because it was lying to kids and how really is that any way to establish trust between a child and their parents.

rebecca_in_blue December 27 2010, 03:25:46 UTC

How awful. I don't know what to say except I'm so sorry it happened, and I think your parents are behaving very childishly. I hope that by this time next year, they'll have learned to be more respectful of your wishes; otherwise, I would make a big point out of not doing anything for Xmas.

As an aside, my staunchly atheist sister doesn't plan on letting her kids believe in Santa at all. She says she doesn't think it's acceptable to lie to your kids for years, much less bribe them into good behavior in exchange for gifts (or in some cases, scare them into good behavior with the threat that "Santa's watching"). I think the whole Santa concept is pretty disturbing when you think about.

countessof_roth December 28 2010, 05:37:19 UTC

I don't get that either! as I said in a comment below, the whole santa thing just is obnoxious. Why LIE to your children?!?!?

traumerin December 27 2010, 10:40:08 UTC

Is it possible that your parents were doing this out of total ignorance and not any sort of ill-will? I don't know the background for this post, but I think at times in our own (understandable) sensitivity to Christmas related issues, JBCs can sometimes blow gentile family reactions out of proportion. Based on my own experience, sometimes giving one's family a generous reading can diffuse the situation much better than reacting angrily or being offended.

I'm not saying this works in all situations, or that families can't be genuinely inappropriate, merely speaking as someone who has "mellowed" over the years.