yes, i think some can be taken literal
Posted By: sm on 2008-05-08
In Reply to: Anyone believe dreams have meaning? - Daughter dreamed about me
and some symbolic, ie, do snakes maybe represent danger to your daughter? Of course most my dreams have no apparent meaning. but i have had a few that were helpful. once my horse had gotten loose and we couldn't find him; then i remembered what i was dreaming when my dad had woke me up -- and i told him the precise place to go, and sure enough, there was my horse. Another, after a person very close to me died, was one that gave me reasons to 'hang on' and live my life out, helping me significantly. I do think it would be more difficult to tell the significance of your child's dream vs your own.
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It's lying in the absolute literal sense, but so what.
I think it's part of the fun of Christmas. I wasn't traumatized by thinking Santa was real when I was small. And my children, who are now 18 and 20, seem to be well adjusted, too. I also don't think that lying to your children is the worst thing you can do as a parent. The "controlled dissemination of information" can be a good thing. My kids don't need to know what I did when I was a wild child, for example. And on occasion I've told them there were no more Little Debbies in the house, even though I had a personal stash hidden away. LOL!
As far as Santa goes, I loved it. The way I explained it to my children when they got older and stopped believing was that when we're very little, Santa is a noun. He's a jolly old man who brings us gives, a very concrete thing. When we're older, Santa becomes a verb that means "to give". When my oldest became aware of the Santa reality, he wanted to "Santa for my little brother", and kept the fantasy alive for him. Now they do that for others. I consider that a reality.
The arguments regarding the honesty of the Santa fantasy will go on and on. In the end, it's a personal family decision to participate or not, and I think we can all be respectful of other family's decisions by not divulging the truth within earshot of children who believe, and not arguing over the issue with parents who believe otherwise.
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