Larosser

clearly, you would not use god stories to teach your children

Except where the context makes their fictional status clear.  All our kids when small read and loved versions of the Greek myths, for example, though overall they got a lot more of Richard Scarry &c.

Had there been a book telling bible stories as kickalong myth, we'd probably have included it, but everything I ever saw was so relentlessly tendentious that it was out of the question.

how do you feel about other myths, parables and fables?

Each has to be taken on its merits.  The fault of most parables and Aesop / Lafontaine is being preachy, which is to be avoided.

Do you have Santa Claus, the tooth fairy or similar traditions in your household?

Yes indeed, and the Easter Bunny too.  I'm a great fan of the Dickens / Coca Cola Christmas tradition, and Christmas has always been a major family celebration for us.

Oh, and The Lord of the Rings was there for them to read (one of them was an enthusiast).  Had Harry Potter been around, he'd have been available too.

Mar 3, 2012 -- 4:53PM, Larosser wrote:

Here's a question for the atheists here: clearly, you would not use god stories to teach your children, but how do you feel about other myths, parables and fables? Do you have Santa Claus, the tooth fairy or similar traditions in your household? What about stories like Aesop's fables?

If you do employ myths and fables, how and when do you let your kids know that they aren't literal truth?

Disclaimer: I didn't intend my opening sentence to discourage agnostics or theists from contributing to the discussion, but I am particularly interested to hear the thoughts of people who have completely rejected god stories for their children.

Best
La

I don't have children, but if I did, I don't think I'd tell them their Christmas presents came from Santa Claus is a good idea. When I found out Santa Claus wasn't real, I was unhappy that I'd been lied to.

Mar 3, 2012 -- 4:53PM, Larosser wrote:

Here's a question for the atheists here: clearly, you would not use god stories to teach your children, but how do you feel about other myths, parables and fables? Do you have Santa Claus, the tooth fairy or similar traditions in your household? What about stories like Aesop's fables?

If you do employ myths and fables, how and when do you let your kids know that they aren't literal truth?

I read Aesop's Fables as a child, and I don't recall ever thinking they were "literal truth," just as I did not consider any of the other animal stories, including The Wind in the Willows, to be "literal truth." I was also raised on Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy when I was little, but I don't recall being upset when I found out there was no Santa Claus and no Tooth Fairy (which I probably learned when I was six). My grandparents also made jokes about the Easter Bunny visiting their house and hiding the colored eggs, but I remember always knowing that it was my grandparents who actually hid the eggs for me to find. 

Santa Claus did, though, pose an interesting situation for me. I understood that the "fairy-tale" Santa Claus with the flying reindeer wasn't real, but since I was raised Catholic, I also understood that there was a real historical Santa Claus, St. Nicholas of Myra, and that he was technically still "real," as he was part of the Communion of Saints in Heaven with God that one could petition for help. 

I also remember reading Greek mythology and even the Old Testament, but I never considered any of it "literally true," not even the story of Moses and the Exodus. I accepted some of the stories, like Adam and Eve, and Jonah and the sea monster, as thoroughly fictional, though considered other stories, like Moses and the Exodus and the stories of King David, to be oral traditions that were largely legendary and fictional, though probably based on historical incidents. The only part of the Christian Scriptures that I accepted as "literal truth" when I was a Catholic child were the stories of Jesus and his Apostles. In other words, I accepted the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles as historical rather than as legendary or fictional. 

*sigh* I just realized I misspelled "parables". Oh, well. Thanks for the replies, all. 

As I kid, I remember being traumatized by the idea of "fiction". I was an early reader, into young adult chapter books in about the second grade. After developing a major crush on a character in one of my books, I came to the realization that he did not exist, and was completely distraught. My dad had to talk me down over that one, consoling me that we could still enjoy and appreciate stories without them being real.  That talk served me well later, I suspect.

And then my family totally finnessed the Santa Claus myth, with my older sister suggesting we stay up and spy to see him only for me to discover that Santa was every single member of my family. That worked just fine for me, and I think I just extrapolated from that to other myths and legends.

I'm thinking about this now because of talks with my grandson, who is five. For him, the Easter Bunny, Scooby Doo, Spiderman and Jesus are all equally real and equally magic. I'm considering what I'll say to him when the penny starts to drop.

La

Mar 3, 2012 -- 9:36PM, Larosser wrote:

As I kid, I remember being traumatized by the idea of "fiction". I was an early reader, into young adult chapter books in about the second grade. After developing a major crush on a character in one of my books, I came to the realization that he did not exist, and was completely distraught. My dad had to talk me down over that one, consoling me that we could still enjoy and appreciate stories without them being real.  That talk served me well later, I suspect.

I don't recall ever being taumatized by fiction. I just never seemed to care whether a story or a book was fictional or not. I didn't bother me that the cartoons that I watched like Scooby-Doo were fictional cartoons (and yes, I did have a crush on the Scooby-Doo character Daphne when I was in first grade).

I do though remember being surprised in a undergraduate American Novels course to learn that the children's novels by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the "Little House" books, were probably ghost-written by her daughter Rose, who was an accomplished journalist and novelist (there is still no consensus on how much of the published text of the "Little House" books is Rose's and how much of the published text might go back to her mother Laura's memoirs in manuscript). I had always been told as a child that Laura had written her autobiographical novels during the Great Depression when she was in her mid-60s but had chosen to use the third person perspective rather than the first person perspective. But this traditional account of how Laura wrote the "Little House" books, which is still taught to children and still perpetuated at tourist attractions connected to Laura and the Ingalls family seems to be largely fictional.