Santa Claus

[Nihil Obstat]

The child in me is dying on the inside that what I really want for Christmas this year is a graphing calculator, hence why I also asked for the brand new One Direction album.

Which calculator do you Yanks use mostly? TI?

[PhuturePriest]

Which calculator do you Yanks use mostly? TI?

 

I'm asking for a TI-83 plus graphing calculator, the best-selling calculator in all of North America, and though Canada is barely a country, it is included with that statistic.

[BG45]

I'm asking for a TI-83 plus graphing calculator, the best-selling calculator in all of North America, and though Canada is barely a country, it is included with that statistic.

 

Best calculator you'll ever get FP.  I got mine for high school Trigonometry around 14 years ago and it still works.  Edit:  That sounded old...I'm only 27!

[PhuturePriest]

Best calculator you'll ever get FP.  I got mine for high school Trigonometry around 14 years ago and it still works.  Edit:  That sounded old...I'm only 27!

 

I'm getting it for algebra, mostly. I'm a little interested/excited about how it works on other things, though, so I'll definitely learn how to use it on everything else.

[Nihil Obstat]

84+ is also a good choice, but neither will let you down.

[tinytherese]

Methinks blazingstar is being intentionally extra cantankerous. 

 

The biggest objection I know to telling your kids that Santa isn't real is then having them go to school and announce to their class that Santa isn't real, and make a bunch of kids cry. Honestly, people who decide to not do Santa in a way that is based on the idea "Santa is a lie" (instead of something like "We want to make the the focus is on Jesus, not consumerism") need to make sure their kids aren't little snits to everyone else's kids. 

 

 

 

Homeschooling

 

Problem solved.

 

Plus, you teach your children not to be rude.

 

A lie is a lie no matter how cute you dress it up or later explain it away.
 

 

School isn't the only place where children interact with each other. What about at family gatherings? Children at your parish? Neighborhood children? Children at the park?

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

"Doing" Santa does not necessarily mean lying to children.

Many children enjoy Santa not because they really think he is really real but because they enjoy playing pretend. 

Developmentally, most children maintain a firm grip on reality even as they get deeply "involved" with pretend things - imaginary friends, for example.

I personally chose to "believe" in Santa up until 4th grade; I only stopped because I was getting too much flack. But when I say I "believed" I mean that I enjoyed playing Santa with the world - I liked the game and wanted it to go on. I can't remember a time I truly believed Santa was actually real. It was like pretending magic.

And you know - I still leave milk and cookies out, even though there are no children in the house!

 

 

I still believe in Santa Claus being supposedly saint Nicholas, being whichever saint Nicholas he is, perhaps all of them and at Christmas we can research on top of our Lenten journey the st Nicholas'.

There is an old story that the whole Santa clause thing actually started somewhere in Europe and there was a shoe maker and every year he would store all his left over material and build toys with that material and at Christmas time he would give all the toys to the local orphange, unsure if he was a christian or not and unsure if the story is even true, but all the same if the story is true it was a very saintly thing to do. Perhaps that old cobbler was saint Nicholas.

 

Either way i still believe in Santa Claus, not as a make believe character but as one of the spirits of Christmas, an Allie to the spirit of charity. And if i had children i would hopefuly tell them this. Someone also told me they get there children to give away one of there presents they recieve to a poor child, which is inline with the spirit of christmas and the gift of charity.

 

I also believe in the christmas tree, has anyone heard the story of where the christmas tree came from, and yes it was another catholic saint.

 

Onward christian souls.

 

Jesus is LORD.

[Archaeology cat]

School isn't the only place where children interact with each other. What about at family gatherings? Children at your parish? Neighborhood children? Children at the park?

Yep. Even if you restrict them to activities that only allow Catholic homeschoolers, you'll encounter different views on it (obviously, given this discussion). Unless you keep them in a bubble, you can't keep them from all differing views.

[BG45]

I'm getting it for algebra, mostly. I'm a little interested/excited about how it works on other things, though, so I'll definitely learn how to use it on everything else.

 

 

84+ is also a good choice, but neither will let you down.

 

No playing with a TI calculator is complete until you start drawing pretty pictures just because... :)  Sorry I'll stop distracting from Santa.

[PhuturePriest]

No playing with a TI calculator is complete until you start drawing pretty pictures just because... :)  Sorry I'll stop distracting from Santa.

 

The last few pages have just been trolling and making fun anyway, so it doesn't really matter. :P When I get it for Christmas I'll make a thread dedicated to TI calculators, though, and we can nerd out and discuss all the fun ways to play with them!

[Archaeology cat]

I loved my TI-85

[CrossCuT]

I have gone through college Calculus II and I have never needed more than my TI-83. Its a good little calculator! :)

[blazeingstar]

Yep. Even if you restrict them to activities that only allow Catholic homeschoolers, you'll encounter different views on it (obviously, given this discussion). Unless you keep them in a bubble, you can't keep them from all differing views.

 

But they won't be innundated by it.  Schools are very big on group beliefs.  However, the average child gets his or her buble burst in 1-3rd grade so they wouldn't even have to play nice for very long.

 

 

No kid on the planet would see jumping on a trampoline as "exercise". The fact that it's exercise is just convenient, because jumping on trampolines is really fun, and that's what kids care about. I've never heard a kid say "I need to go jump on the trampoline; I haven't exercised at all today!"

 

If my father was a businessman that was always away, and the only time I ever spent with him as a child was speaking to him through Skype, I would have treasured those moments. Doesn't mean I wouldn't have preferred to play pretend with him in the yard, it just means I appreciated every moment I that I got with him because it was so rare.

 

No, children can imagine whatever they want, however, I know that I felt good when I excercized as a child (then again I was a child of the 80's where we had excercized related infomercials all day).  Excercize and fun don't need to be mutually exclusive.

 

It sounds like you have more problems with your dad than imagination and playing pretend.  Thats his problem and his choices, not mine.

 

 

As a child, I would've been sad and confused if my parents hadn't played along when I pretended. I would've thought that they didn't like me or that they were implying that pretending was stupid, therefore something was wrong with me.

 

Boo freaking hoo.  You would of been sad? Well life is sad.  Children have to find the appropriate ways to interact with adults.  You grew up with parents who pretended with you.  If a child grows up with parents who will not call them a horse, or a kitty or pretend a cup is full of tea, it won't kill them nor emotinally wound them.  They will learn play is for children and not adults.

 

 

Wow you have a very very disturbing idea of what is a lie and what is not a lie.

 

Tolkien was obviously a huge liar since he wrote his children Christmas stories pretending to be santa clause.

 

Wait, I'm sure Jesus was a huge liar too considering he told PARABLES.

 

No, I don't.  Infact, I was the one who was all over Table when he stated that any fiction and fantacy was a lie.  Stories, when put in the context of being facts are a lie.   However, there's no getting around the fact that how 99% of how parents convey Santa involves many, many lies.  This would include chimney sliding and reigndeers, etc, etc.

 

The fact that Tolkien wrote good fiction is marred by the fact that he lied to his children.  People can write fiction and be imaginative without being liars.

 

 

Also, to pretend isn't to be childish, but childlike. I pray that I can be more childlike every day, for Jesus said "Let the children come to me."

 

He also said not to scandalize little ones.  To me, lying about Santa is a form of scandalizing little ones becuase it teaches them to put their very sacred trust into something that dosn't exist.

 

 

I suppose Saint Therese' spirituality is completely wrong since it's centered on becoming more and more like "a little child".

 

Seriously?  Not lying to your children about Santa and not wanting to play with a child in such a way that you lie to them is somehow implying that one of the theological greats is wrong?  You all are on some kind of pixie dust.

[CrossCuT]

So the story about the little boy (5 years old with leukemia) who was granted a wish through the Make a Wish Foundation to be batman for a day was a horrible thing in your opinion?

 

They should have just told the 5 year old cancer patient to buck up because life is sad?

[blazeingstar]

So the story about the little boy (5 years old with leukemia) who was granted a wish through the Make a Wish Foundation to be batman for a day was a horrible thing in your opinion?

 

They should have just told the 5 year old cancer patient to buck up because life is sad?

 

I would not have lied, I would not have participated and I would not have allowed my children to participate.

 

I think what they did was in poor taste but I also think that spanking children 99% of the time is in poor taste.  People are not required to participate in my beliefs.

 

If I was confronted by said child participating in such an elaborate ruse I would have given him an answer that was not a lie and was socially acceptable enough not to be killed by the mob.

 

There are many other things that could of been done that did not involve lying.  And that's the rub.  Its a cheap and easy way out when we lie to children.  I will not be doing so.