4 Moms of 35 Kids Answer Reader Questions

It’s that time again when The 4 Moms answer reader questions.

Be sure to see what questions the rest of my team are answering:

• Raising Olives
• The Common Room
• Life in a Shoe

Here are a few questions I have gotten recently:

How do you deal with Santa Claus at your house?

Once upon a time, when we had a normal number of children, we told them that Santa was a fat man who delivered toys to every good little boy and girl in the world on Christmas Eve, and they had better be good because he documented their behavior and kept lists of which children were naughty and which were nice.

And they were gullible enough to believe that for a while, until some little kid at church told them the truth.

That night the two who could speak intelligible English came to us to ask whether this rumor was true. The rumor that we had been deceiving them. We hemmed and hawed and shuffled our feet a good deal and finally came out with it.

Yes. Yes, it was true that we had told them a tall tale, but it was all in good fun. And hadn’t it been fun?! Remember the carrots the “reindeer” had eaten?! Remember the cookie crumbs?!

That’s about the time they both started crying and wailing and bawlin’ and squawlin’ with the snot running down that little ditch under their noses, and saying, “WHY??? Why did you lie to us??? WHiiiiyyyyyyy???”

That was the last Christmas we made believe about Santa.

Now we tell them that Santa is a fun fable about a fat man who delivers toys to good boys and girls. They know that Mommy and Daddy really put out the presents and they get excited every Christmas Eve to see what will be under the tree the next morning.

They also know that some parents like to make believe that Santa is real and they had better not be the ones to tell their friends he’s not or they won’t be very popular at Christmas parties.

*Disclaimer: I DON’T CARE what you tell your kids. I’m not judging or trying to convince you to do what we do, just sharing.

What Wii games do you recommend?

We loved Mario Kart, and would often have intense, heated showdowns until the baby stepped on the disc and broke it. Sigh.

Now we mostly play Wii Fit Plus. It’s not just exercises. There are plenty of fun games and obstacle courses. My favorite is the one where I’m a bird and I have to fly from ship to ship in the ocean by flapping my arms and leaning toward the target. I ROCK the flapping!

My kids love Animal Crossing, and if your friends also play this, you can get their “code” and visit their towns, send them mail, etc. This game involves working at a job, planting, reaping, and paying off a mortgage if you’re wise.

If I could be a fly on the wall at your house, what would I hear?

You would hear sweet fellowship in the form of songs and poetry. Plus, a lot of this:

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