Tug-of-War

a daily prompt Tug-Of-War

djmatticus30 Comments

Today’s Daily Prompt seemed like a great question to use for the next round of Matticus Kingdom hosted tug-of-wars:

Daily Prompt: Fantasy

by michelle w. on March 8, 2013

The Tooth Fairy (or Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus . . .): a fun and harmless fiction, or a pointless justification for lying to children?

So, here’s the Question for this round of Tug-Of-War:

Is telling your children stories about the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus an Important Part of Childhood/Growing Up or is it Not Important/Lying?

And, here are the Rules:

The rules (because all games must have rules, except Calvinball, of course):
1) Read the prompt.  (I know what you are thinking, “Reading, bleh, who wants to do that.  But if you don’t read the prompt then you won’t be able to fully play along.” Plus, you’ve already made it this far, which means you’ve probably already read the prompt.  Look at you go!)
2) Choose a side.  (You have to pick a side in tug-of-war, that’s kind of important.)
3) Write a post that supports your decision or leave your answer as a comment.  (We don’t need an essay, and we don’t give bonus points for brevity either.  However, we will be your friend if you do something creative.)
4) If you write a post, link back to this post so the moderator can count your support correctly. (Since this is a Daily Prompt, the Matticus Kingdom will also be counting anyone who participates in the prompt and doesn’t link to this post or leave a comment.) 
5) There is no fifth rule – just seemed like there needed to be another one – oh, wait, I know:  The fifth rule of Matticus Kingdom Tug-of-War is “You do talk about it.”  To anyone and everyone.  That’d be great.

The winning side will be the one that gets the most support, and their reward will be the knowledge that they chose wisely and eternal fame across the kingdom.  Like these people: Eggs.

Which side of the rope are you going to support?  Fiction vs. Lying?  Imagination Building vs. Silly Stories?  Old Tradition vs. Creating Traditions of Your Own?  Which side do you want to see splattered and floundering in the mud?

30 thoughts on “a daily prompt Tug-Of-War”

  5. I choose the “Fantasy is okay for children and everyone else too” side. Albert Einstein is credited with saying, “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Fantasy, imagination, fairy tales are all ways to create our own realities in one way or another. I never once for a moment thought my children were 100% convinced about Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny because we always celebrated those fantasies for what they were: a great game of pretend! We never said, “Now children, you know we’re just pretending there’s a Santa Claus.” Don’t have to. Children are very bright and love playing a game of fantasy. They can even convince themselves the fantasy is true! And that’s fine. Fantasy encourages imagination and helps us understand that reality is something we can create and make changes to. And I think fantasy brings out the artist in us too. After all, you have to have to be able to break from whatever the agreed upon “reality” is in order to create art whether it is a personal viewpoint about something or a creation of a new reality.

    Reply

  9. I have already Daily-Prompted today. I do believe that fairy tales are a very important part of childhood but it is also very wrong to lie to children. So, my answer will be 42.

    Reply

  11. Undoubtedly an important part of growing up. Apart from extending minds to realms beyond the mundane, these fantasies also provide a useful mental background for filtering some of the even more fantastic and unbelievable myths propagated in the name of religion. Unfortunately, many adults who dismiss the tooth fairy and similar notions fail to see the irony in their retention of these other fibs as fact.
    Anyway, all normal children will accept that rather than having been lied to, they have been participants in a game.

    Reply

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