Kat Duff's book on sleep mentions tales told to children to help them get to sleep, stuff like the sandman's coming or the tooth fairy can't pick up your tooth until you fall asleep. She mentions that she found her tooth in her mother's dresser, quizzed her, and got a confession that she was in fact the tooth fairy. "But don't tell your brother," she was admonished -- and from then on felt a little more adult listening to her brother prattle on about the tooth fairy.
Makes me wonder. Is one of the reasons, maybe the primary reason, why I cannot engage in magical thinking the fact that my parents refused to engage in the harmless make-believe rituals so many kids experience? Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Dog Heaven, compassionate conservatism, all were never foisted upon us as kids, and we never developed any compassion for religion.
Coincidentally this morning, I was thinking about my sister (who will be visiting later today)... she was terrorized by a large dog at an early age (4 or 5) and has been unfond of dogs ever since. Not exactly scared, but refuses to pet them or acknowledge when they're being cute. LOVES cats.
My wife almost drowned as a kid, in one of Minnesota's many lakes. Ever since then she's afraid of open water. She can stand in a swim pool, but if she gets too deep and can't touch the bottom she goes into a full-blown panic attack. Took her out snorkeling on our honeymoon in Hawaii, and as soon as the water got 3-4 feet deep she went into panic mode. Totally irrational, totally uncontrollable, totally all-encompassing.
Kids before the age of reason -- six or seven -- tend to be very impressionable. Maybe teaching them magical thinking isn't doing them any favors, maybe as adults they don't "grow out of it."
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