while he'd never been young enough to believe in Santa Claus, he'd once been young enough to doubt.
This line probably improved the upbringing of any future offspring of mine. I had considered either being totally honest, or telling the typical Santa stories as a low difficulty exercise in spotting falsehoods you're raised with.
Now, I'll still casually detail the Santa myths while being honest about his nonexistence, but I'll also adopt the parental Santa role, down to using magic tricks to make presents appear at midnight, and reindeer tracks in the lawn.
My kids will not be fooled by turning the hot plate around.
Edit: I was thinking about adding a link to the hot plate story for anyone not a regular LW reader, but then I realized this story is already contained in the fiction! (ch. 26)
...adopt the parental Santa role, down to using magic tricks to make presents appear at midnight, and reindeer tracks in the lawn.
You do realize that one of the things that this kind of thing teaches is "Dad's willing to slash my tires", I hope. Sufficiently smart kids can pick up on that kind of issue surprisingly young - my own relationship with my mother never really recovered from the instance when, at age 5, I discovered that she was willing to lie to me for her own convenience, and what you're proposing to do appears to be rather similar...
ETA: There is now a third thread, so send new comments there.
Since the first thread has exceeded 500 comments, it seems time for a new one, with Eliezer's just-posted Chapter 33 & 34 to kick things off.
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