So the whole leprechaun thing ended up being a huge disappointment for Ben. He left out the snacks and leprechaun house, and when he was asleep, I wrote a little note to him, pretending to be "Larry the Leprechaun" and asked if I could be his pet. He was so excited when he saw the note in the morning. He told his friends at school that he caught a leprechaun and that it wrote him a note.
When he got home from school, he diligently starting writing a note back to Larry. In the middle of the note, he looked up at me and said, "Mom, you promise it wasn't you that wrote the note? Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye?" UGH! How could I lie to that? So I admitted that it was me.
The look on his face made me want to stick a needle in my eye! I felt horrible. He's figured out that the tooth fairy and Easter bunny aren't real (still hanging on to Santa Claus, though...) so I was a little surprised that he was so upset. No tears or tantrums or anything, just sheer dejected-ness on his face. I tried to explain that I was having fun with him and loved that he had such a good imagination. He told me that he just wanted to be alone and didn't want to be around me for a while. Stick that needle in deeper and give it a good twist!
About an hour later, he came up and gave me a hug and said he was sorry. HE was sorry! What a kid! I appologized to him, too, and told him if he wanted to still pretend Larry was real that was OK. He agreed that it would be fun to keep writing notes and said it would help him work on his writing. Then he said, "Is it OK if I don't tell my friends that it was really you? I don't want them to be disappointed." Like I said, what a kid!
Awww! He is so clever...I love that he came to apologize to you, that is genuine.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! That's sad, but bound to happen. How old is Ben? When Michael started learning about Leprechauns at school he was scared to go to bed so I told him they weren't real. Well he argued with me and kept telling me about the Leprechaun that visits his classroom and his friends houses. So I guess if this happens with Michael I'll just tell him I tried to tell the truth! :)J/K This part of parenting is hard because I hate lying! I totally would have done the same thing you did!
ReplyDeleteSo I've been catching up on your blog finally, and can I just say that I cannot believe how big Ben is??? My last summer at home when I was engaged, I helped my mom out in the nursery every week, and Ben was my favorite little boy there (shhh-- don't tell the other moms!). It blows me away when you tell stories about him and I realize how long ago that was!!! I still think he's really cute, though! ;)
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