Religion in My Childhood

Growing up, it would constantly switch between a strict "You WILL go to church every time the doors are open" and a lazy "we don't feel like driving you there tonight". We were taught Santa Claus and Tooth Fairy, but I'm not entirely sure we ever -actually- thought the Easter Bunny was real.

I can't remember what age I was when I was told Santa Claus wasn't real, but my mother tells me I not only took it well, but had already figured it out. Oddly enough, however, I still believed in the tooth fairy for a very long time. This was probably due to my mother's clever ploy of sealing my tooth in an envelope. When I woke up, a dollar would instead be sealed in the "same" envelope instead, fooling my young mind into thinking it had been done by magic. I never once figured out that the darned tooth was never under my pillow to begin with. My mother had already switched envelopes long before the envelope was ever put in place.

I don't think I'll teach my children Santa Claus. There is just too much strife caused by the eventual "you lied to me!" rant that is very typical of the revelation scenario. However, I might just tell my kids about the tooth fairy. Why the tooth fairy and not Santa Claus? I'll tell you- bribes. That's right: even when I tell them the tooth fairy isn't real, they'll still be getting that dollar when they lose a tooth.

You can't complain about something like that when you're still getting a dollar just for growing up. ...Er, right?