“It’s a nonsense story and we raise children with it”
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Sure, you can keep up the illusion for years, but these moms wonder: why bother? The Sinterklaas party remains just as much fun when you do know it. Saves a lot of hysteria.
Sandra (45): “From the beginning I have been honest with my children. My mother did the same, and I remember that honesty didn’t detract from the experience of the party for me. So when my eldest son, who was a preschooler, started asking questions, I explained the situation.
Dream to the buttons
Apparently he then said something to a Piet in class and other children overheard it. Because not much later I was stopped by another mother in the schoolyard: how I got it into my head to destroy the dream of all those little children. She towered over me – and I’m already six feet – and flapped a handful of pointy fingernails ferociously as she got very angry in front of all the other parents. It was, in short, quite a spectacle.
“How I got it into my head to destroy the dream of all those little children”
Yes, I was taken aback for a while. But I was able to explain that the other children were not at all impressed by my son’s story. Sinterklaas passed by again, it ended with a hiss. But I did urge my son not to talk about it in class anymore.”
Read also – ‘I honestly tell my children that Sinterklaas doesn’t exist’ >
Why would you?
Jennifer (35): “When I was told the truth about Sinterklaas as a child, I felt cheated. That’s why I don’t want to lie to my two-year-old daughter. It’s a nonsense story and we raise children with it: why would you want to participate in that? I do buy presents because my family would like us to join them. And I see that my daughter also enjoys the party. But at the end of the story, fortunately, my daughter already knows that it is all fake.”
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