Then it does and one day, POOF! she's gone......never to be seen by her Muggle parents again.
edit: until they dig up the concrete foundations of the new highschool....
Why don't muggle siblings get to go to Hogwarts? It's not for secrecy. No one erased Petunia's memory so she knows about the Wizarding World. Do you need magic to take history, herbology, muggle studies? Hagrid isn't magic and teaches care of magical creatures. Sure you can't take potions or defense against the dark arts, but surely you can study something there.
Yeah like doesn't the Wizarding world know anything about science, complex math, literature? There should be general studies programs for squibs and non-magical people who want to be support in the Wizarding world.
The ONLY character I can relate to is Petunia who found out there was this magical world and she just wasn't born special enough so they didn't want anything to do with her. No wonder she was a bitter bitch the rest of her life.
But hagrid could be a very good wizard actually. He can do magic spells without saying a spell. Even Voldemort and dumbledore say their spells up loud.
I'm pretty sure this is an origin story for a future Harry Potter themed serial killer. "Moaning Myrtle kills 3 in Houston- Writes 'Mudbloods' with entrails" "She who must not be named has a cult following numbering in the thousands." "Massacre in small town leaves one baby boy alive."
> "Moaning Myrtle kills 3 in Houston- Writes 'Mudbloods' with entrails"
Nah, that kind of weird only happens in Austin...it's the Portland of the South.
They have to be bullshitting.
Her teachers think it's awesome and creative? Sure they do bro a completely realistic reaction that a totally real person would have. :l
Religious people believe in what they tell their kids. You may disagree but it's people carrying on their own beliefs and traditions. If they are wrong then it's because they don't know better.
In this case, these people do not believe in magic but still lie to their kid. I think that's much worse
This is WAY more disappointing than any of those other things. They have filled her with this thought that her whole being is magical. Can you imagine how traumatizing it could be to discover you and everything you thought you knew about yourself was untrue?
Yes. It’s called a religious upbringing. I was raised to believe Jesus Christ will come back soon and take us all. Obviously didn’t happen. Huge letdown.
Well, you have to factor in here that this is what I had been told quite literally since birth. So, you tend to believe what your parents and adults tell you. Also, my parents mostly had friends from the same circles, so they all agreed with eachother.
The believe of a lot of more evangelical Christians (More specific in my case the more extremish Pentecostal kind) believe that Jesus Christ will some day come back to earth to collect his ‘children’ and safe them from the apocalypse.
And they believe that there are signs of when this would happen, which are mostly signs that can basically always be true. I’m sure there are Christians out there who think the pandemic is a sign of Jesus returning soon.
And this damaging believe was thought (teached? Not English native, sorry) to me and my siblings in a quite literal and direct fashion, and all others (non believers) would either perish in Hell or stay on earth and live through the apocalypse.
I think the main problem is belief ("faith") in things we have no good reason to think are true. You then come to rely on ancient books which most likely will jave a mix of good and terrible advice in them because they were written by people who extrapolated from limited information. Cherry-picking is necessary since a lot of it won't line up with modern knowledge. On the whole, accommodating what we now know into the religion will moderate it and make it more tolerable to those outside the belief. Rejecting modern knowledge or cherry-picking only to match with a hateful agenda will cause more conflict with others. But both approaches share the same fundamental flaw of trying to salvage ancient beliefs without a rational choosing process.
Those don't potentially derail career ambitions or fuck you up for life - nobody goes to therapy over the tooth fairy. I'm sure some Jewish kids brought up Santa a couple times though
It’s much worst for 2 reasons. Firstly religions are really sneaky in that nothing is provable, whereas this barefaced gas lighting will be revealed. Second, religious people can be somewhat forgiven by their kids, when they realise it is all baloney but that the parents 💯 believers.
Oh no question, the Santa lie is harmless, those harry potter people are batshit crazy! There is no way this poor child is going to come out of that undamaged. Everyone at school probably thinks she is crazy or stuck up already.
I never told my kids about Santa Claus. Society did (cartoons, etc). I was careful to never say to them that Santa was real. When they were mature enough to ask me sincerely about it I told the truth.
These parents are deliberately deceiving their child about the nature of the world she lives in. I see trouble up ahead.
Religion is extremely divisive. Ever since people like Pope Urban it realized it could be used as a control mechanism of the masses it has been. In no way am i saying religion wasnt a useful tool for people at one time. It gave us the ability to work together in large groups through shared myths, but were past that now. We have other shared beliefs that allow us to work together. for example we can work together for the most part because we all share the belief in geographic locations, although there are no lines on the ground and names running through countries, we all agree Germany is Germany. For the most part we agree on currencies, we even agree fiat currencies have worth because of our other shared belief, governments. We now possess the knowledge to answer the majority of the questions the Bible set out to answer. How does the human body work...god of course. How do plants grow....umm god. Now we have the answers to a lot of these questions, interpreted through math and science, the true languages of the universe. Religion has passed its shelf life. And it's becoming detrimental to maintaining a cohesive social environment.
Disclaimer: some content is copy/pasted from MY previous posts
I'm pretty sure that religion was a prevalent form of control long before there was a Catholic Church. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's been exactly that since its inception. Seneca, who predates the change of the eras (BCE vs CE) by a couple of years (by birth, at least), said something to the effect of 'the common man thinks religion is truth, wise men think it folly, and princes find it useful. '
Religion is extremely divisive because that's the point. Power brokers seek to retain control over their bases by defining who we are and aren't at best, and defining who we are in terms of who the 'others' are more frequently than not. In-group out-group biases are frequently the simplest and clearest way to corral people into a position over which an authoritarian can exert dominance.
The Reformation can be seen to have gotten its gas from the political situation among the small principates of middle and western Europe around 1517 - they saw an up and comer in Luther who, if he was successful, could redirect their taxes from the HRE to more local (and probably cheaper) efforts, thus improving their own rules and pockets while deepening their control as heads of not just their states, but also their own newly minted churches either openly or by appointing those who were loyal to their designs.
Marx wasn't right about much, but that whole 'opiate of the masses' piece was a great observation. Like any opiate medication it can be an aid to help a patient through a tough time, but taken too much and too long, it make the addict insensate to their obligations and divorces them from reality.
We have enough real problems in the world. Scarce, material things to fight over but we are wasting time, resources and lives fighting over some outdated, obsolete, imagined construct
The difference is that religions rely on faith and 99% of religious people live like everyone else and think of god a few times a day at max. On the other hand, believing you're a witch who can perform magic etc is something completely different. That girl will have to face the harsh reality one day, whereas plenty of religious people die with their faith.
I don't quite believe you know every religion, their structure and their belief in that all religions would act as kind of like through one operation. Do you mean faith in general as the worst thing in religion?
A big issue they are gonna have in the future is the fact that she will alienate herself from her current peers because she believes she is a level above them and the longer she believes the longer she will alienate herself from reality
But at least Santa is external and only relevant a couple of months, if you believe in Santa and find out he isn’t real you are a bit sad. But when you find out that you aren’t magical you lose faith in yourself, you lose part of the personality that has been built for you and your relationship with your parents is probably destroyed.
Not just that if they have all of their passion put into being something that they later find out is totally unachievable then it could lead to a lot of wasted effort and potential. It would kind of be like a case of incarceration where they are systematically kept in a cage and all they know is the cage and once they are out all they want to do after seeing how complex life is is get back in the cage which could spiral very easily.
I don't think telling kids that stories are true always a bad thing, everyone's been doing it with Santa. The problem is, they tell her she is part of the story, and keep lying about her life again and again. I can't imagine what will happen when she'll realise that everything about her life was a lie, she could even have an existencial crisis.
Imagine that, and then you realize it was all made up but you hold on to it for a long time because it’s so hard to let go and go through a years long struggle mentally and emotionally. Then imagine that almost everyone else still believes the story and you are kind of ostracized to some extent for the rest of your life. That’s what it was like for me becoming and atheist.
When I was a very little, my father told me he was part alligator and that during thunderstorms at night he went out to lay in the ditch and transform. I believed this without question; my dad wouldn’t lie to me! He had an elaborate back story. I used to watch at the window when it rained, convinced if I waited long enough, I’d see him transform. I believed this implicitly until grade four, when we had to stand up in front of the class and talk about something interesting about our family. I chose Dad the gator. I can still feel the scalding rush of humiliation that washed over me with the derision of kids who, to that moment, had been my friends. When my teacher confirmed that Dad was not part reptile, I realized I had been gaslighted by my own father. It’s been many decades since, and I can remember it as if it were yesterday. The teasing and finger pointing lingered into high school, and I never completely trusted my dad again. That’s what these people have set their daughter up for.
My dad told me he was a rabbit in a former life which lead to him being absolutely obsessed with carrots. But he told his story always as a joke, even as a little kid i was never sure if he was telling the truth or just fucking around. I mean, I'm now in my twenties and i still can't be sure that he wasn't a rabbit, but the fact that he only ate carrots while telling this story makes me wonder a little.
I'm sorry you had to go through this...
On another note: I really really hope that person from the HP post is just seeking attention and that story is not real. If it is, i pray to any god they come to their senses as soon as possible. Imagine you write out the words "i know this is gaslighting and will resolve in immeasurable disappointment and trust issues, but i think 5-9 years of fun, if it's actually fun for my child and not just a normal thing she's not gonna bet an eye about during those years, warrant a lifetime of 50-90 years, ten times the duration, of emotional scarring, perhaps mental illnesses like depression and possibly hatred towards her parents, all the while she will not remember her childhood as magical during those adult years, but just a big lie and letdown, yes this is a good thing" and actually believe it. Those people would need help. And i say "would" because i genuinely want to believe it is not real.
I’m sorry you went through that, kids can be so cruel to each other. I hope your teacher did something to try to lessen the humiliation.
But if you ever wanted to turn this into a novel, I’d totally read it.
I've seen some pretty awful homes working EMS, I always report it to CPS and social services. If there is any food, and water, they are basically done there. I've seen no power, filth, mountains of trash, and other things I thought would certainly result in a response, but no.
I'm an ABA therapist, my in home visits are usually standard. But sometimes I see some wild shit, and I'm thinking "How do you feel this is acceptable?"
What about santa clause is that abuse? We lie to kids all the time...
I do think this is on a new level and wouldn't do it to my kids... but its not so bad.
I believe that christians lie to their kids with a more fundamental lie. The extradition of my religion was quite painful.
It's pretty bad though. Santa is one entity that brings gifts once a year. These people are making her believe she is magic. What you teach your kids doesn't only affect them directly, it also makes a difference how their environment reacts to them being "different" during a life phase when all kids want to be as much like the others as possible.
I don't lie to children about Santa or anything else for the most part. If they ask me, I will reply honestly as best I can for their age group and understanding. It has really pissed parents off when I have done that, but I don't believe lying to be a good foundation for any relationship or fostering future trust.
As for religion, it is different in that these parents know for an absolute fact that they are lying and that the child isn't a magical being. Religious parents believe that they are sharing the facts as best they know them. And remember, Religion isn't just Christianity.
I read the first sentence and immediately laughed to myself. Oh how I wish I could be there to see when this poor girl realizes that her parents are crazy obsessed fans who've been lying to her her entire life.
The lie is still gonna end 3 weeks later when that kid smashes her nose in while running at a wall (that is not located between the platforms 9 and 10 at Kings Cross because between those platforms is no wall. J.K. fucked that up)
It's not the same though. With Harry Potter & modern magic storys we know it's fiction as the author is quite well known. Whereas in religion you can't disprove the existence of God.
More importantly, religious people believe in their religion as well - if you disagree with all religions, religious parents are "only" dumb/naive people carrying on the tradition they believe in. In this case, these parents however don't believe in Magic themselves but still lie to their kid - which is considerably worse.
And at last, religions are quite accepted in out society. This kid might be bullied later once it gets older depending on how long they keep up this theater
Edit: I just realized, it's basically like with Santa
When one adult has an imaginary friend, they are labeled as crazy. When many people have the same imaginary friend, it's called a religion.
Growing up people get over tooth fairy, santa, boogey man... Why is god so difficult to get rid of?
Oh, and many religious people are hypocritical and don't truly believe, otherwise there wouldn't be so many people going against what their religion tells them.
While it is true that we can't prove of disprove the existence of a higher power we can however easily disprove the existence of the "all knowing" "all loving" benevolent "god" of the Abrahamic religions. All you have to do is look at the misery, suffering, famine, and plagues that ravage our society. An "all loving, merciful " God would not allow that to happen. There very well may be a "higher power" of some kind out there. But, it doesn't care about us in the least. And the sycophantic idolization perpetuated by believers does nothing but limit and degrade human society and evolution.
Now we are deep into theology :) That's an age old question. There are multiple attempts in various religions to explain suffering. A God can in my opinion certainly be all knowing but not interfer so people can find their own paths. But granted it's not really "loving".
It's wrong though to describe the Abrahamic god as "all loving" in the first place, in the old testament there are multiple stories where God destroyed cities as punishment for their sins, destroyed a man's life and made him suffer just to test his faith for a bet with the devil etc. There is also really fucked up shit in there, which is the reason why European Christians tend to ignore the old testament except for the better stories in there.
I was raised catholic...the systemic hypocrisy, ignorance, and the fact that they cherry pick passages to suit their ideals (Christians mostly but all religions are guilty of this to some extent) observing these actions as a child and coming to understand the idiocy of it as a teenager led me to be an Athiest. And watching how people of different dogmatic beliefs rage and war against each other has moved me into the realm of anti-theism. There is no benefit to the belief of a higher power to anyone of standard or higher intelligence. The only people who benefit from the imaginary cloud wizard are those of lesser intellectual capacity by giving them something to guide their lives. Anyone with a triple digit IQ that believes in a religion is willfully ignorant and has chosen to ignore the contradictions in every religious text that disprove themselves.
She won't have "trust issues" with these parents. As soon as she realizes that her entire childhood was a sham staged by sociopaths she will cut any contact with them and spend the rest of her life trying to heal wounds.
Parents like this is why I more and more feel we need some kind of parent-certification since all kinds of nasty people are allowed to have kids.
When I got to the bit where they claim their daughter’s teachers think this an awesome idea I’m pretty sure it’s fiction.
Anyway if her teachers know then it’s not much of a secret and her friends or other family are going to tell her she’s not really a wizard. If she did go to school spouting the believe she’s a wizard she’s just going to get bullied.
If there is a bad parenting subreddit, this totally belongs there. “We know it’s gaslighting and that eventually she’ll…have trust issues with us…” And that’s okay? This isn’t a Santa Claus Isn’t Real moment. Her entire childhood is a lie. Also, she’s 8, and soon when she talks about this to her friends she is going to get made fun of and bullied by her peers. And then he asks for tips on *more* ways they can ruin their child! Shitty parenting at its shittiest.
They say it’s akin to believing a major religion and then realizing it’s not true. Well let me tell you. Having to unlearn and go through a lengthy and mentally exhausting deconversion process is no small deal and ensuring your child will have that in their near future is extremely cruel. Think of how isolated this girl will feel when she finds out.
And at least you didn't have the additional burden of knowing that the people you love most in the world knew it was wrong all along, and were just lying to you.
They should try being murdered by a murderous wizard, sending the kid to a Foster family via boarding school and eventually growing up to be an independent young woman free from their madness.
Im 100% an athiest, but to all the extremely brilliant, intuitive, and heroic people in the comments saying “haha this is just like religion” there is a mile-wide line between parents trying to save the souls of their children get them into the afterlife in completely good intentions, and mentally ill parents convincing their daughter that a book series is real for kicks and internet points. Have a good day.
Exactly I can understand people believing in god because it gives them the feeling that someone is watching over them and that there really is someone out there besides the nothingness of space. Also the fact that if you die you go to heaven, it’s a lot better then thinking that when you die you’ll go to heaven instead of well, just dying. Plus if your an atheist you shouldn’t tell people well haha this is religion and it sucks, just like how religious people shouldn’t force religion on people.
I mean athiests who think religion is bad in general are called anti-theists I believe, and a large portion of them essentially cyber bully people who mention they’re religious.
Ahh ok thanks for the output, it just seems that the word atheist gets thrown around a lot so much it means “person who hates religion” instead of “person who doesn’t believe in religion”, just like how some “feminists” ruined feminism reputation by saying “kill all men” instead of “give equal rights to women”.
Christ, hopefully this is bait but if not she won’t just just be disappointed, reality as she knows it will be shattered. I’d be very surprised if it didn’t lead to some kind of mental breakdown for that poor kid.
As someone who was consistently lied to by my parents about something which they both definitely knew was false, I can just imagine that by the time the girl is a teen, she will feel so much shame and embarrassment about things she believed and thought and did, as well as just always wondering *why* they felt the need to do this and never really understanding the reason for the lies.
This poor kid. Comparing religion to making your child believe that they have actual magical powers is stupid. With religion, you at least share common beliefs with other people. They are setting this kid up to be ostracized, teased mercilessly, bullied. Once other kids find out that this child truly believes they are part of the magical community, their peace is over.
The problem here is that the parents have such a hard time relating to the real world that they are living out fanfic, wistful and mourning that HP isn't real. And now thye have inflicted it on their child. There is nothing wrong with cosplay, but that's not what is happening here. They are actually loving their lives as though this stuff is real, and they're dragging their child along with them.
Never have I ever wanted so badly to reach through the internet and slap someone up-side their stupid heads. People like this don’t deserve children, they deserve to be thrown into a cesspool so at least they can be covered in what they’re already full of.
They do make a good correlation between the wizarding world and religion. My main concern is that the daughter might try to use magic in a bad situation and seriously get injured trying to "force her gift" to come out.
"and have trust issues with us when she learns the truth"
Fuck you. You are horrible parents. Never do something knowing it will give your child trust issues.
Spoiler alert Ian Banks "The Wasp Factory"
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parents raise "Frank" as a boy for "him" to learn in adolescence she is actually a girl. Parents' explanation: "It was an experiment!"
I wonder about the repercussions that will ensue when the girl spills to her friends that she's a witch and insists it's true. I predict epic bullying to the point she has to change schools. In fact, at age 8 I can't believe it hasn't happened already. That plus the claim that the teachers actually endorse this behavior is causing me to suspect this story isn't even true.
Ok it is not analgous to religious stories or santa claus or any of that. It is like teaching a child that THEY THEMSELVES ARE SANTA CLAUS. These parents are going to try and take this straight through highschool. I feel bad for the kid, the best years will be destroyed
This is terrible but the part near the end about religion is actually kinda true lol. Kids packed with religious beliefs screaming now in their 50s that our rights come from GOD, not the government. Santa, tooth fairy, Easter bunny.
Knew with 5 years that Santa Clause is not real, neither Jesus and that the entire religion is a giant hoax. Yeah, had a lot of problems with my religion teachers and other members of the church in my life.
No, it's not like religion. People don't raise kids in faith they don't believe in. This is more like sociopaths in a cult or a dictatorship, raising slaves with absolute obedience to the great leader. And using that to get absolutely and utterly useless basic school grades from that so you can do a dick measuring contest with Helen next door is pretty cringy.
this is why I didn't want to teach my kids about santa, they were heartbroken when they found out, since I was veto'd on that one, and this is just that same premise but on fucking acid.
What are they going to do when she turns 11 and doesn’t get a Hogwarts letter and figures out she can’t do actual magic? Tell her she’s a squib and hope she isn’t disappointed? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fostering creativity and letting kids believe in magic - parents have been doing it for generations with things like fairy tales and Disney. But this is on an intense level that will probably cause psychological trauma in the form of things like trust issues and an identity crisis when she finds out her parents have been purposefully misleading her throughout her entirely life about something they knew without a doubt to be fiction. Parents who raise their kids to be religious actually believe it to be true, otherwise they wouldn’t raise their children to believe it. That takes the hurt off if the kids grow up and realize they don’t believe in the religion they were brought up in. Parents tell their kids about Santa because it is so common it’s basically inescapable, benign, and not something that will change the fabric of their lives when they find out he isn’t real. This…this is just selfish. You can teach kids good values and life/moral lessons without knowingly lying to them about their family genealogy and who they are as a person in regards to having special abilities. These parents just want to live out their dreams of being wizards at the expense of their child.
Telling an elaborate series of lies, over the course of years, to a child so that when they find out the truth it will "teach them to ask critical questions and not accept things at face value" - how is that different from beating them in the name of "toughening them up"?
And the part where the parent says "We know she'll have trust issues with us" - as a parent myself, my children's trust in me is an amazing privilege that I'm so grateful for. I *never* want to betray that trust, and if I lost it I would be devastated. I don't think these parents understand what it is they'll lose when their child learns to see them as untrustworthy. And when they do realise, it'll be too late.
I still have issues about being lied to about Santa Claus. The fucking damage this is going to do to the kid, that the parents are AWARE OF, yet are still going ahead because they're narcissists who want to live a life of fanfic and will destroy their child's life to do it.
I lie to my daughter about magical and fantastical things all the time and I never admit I’m lying but she also knows I’m lying. She plays along now asking questions and adding details. Bam, magic and mystery injected into her life with out the unnecessary life long therapy bills. These two idiots are fucking that kid up.
The difference being that Christians, Muslims, Hindus ad nauseam all believe that there is a kernel of truth to their traditions. These parents are consciously weaving a false narrative that A. they don't believe in. B. has no traditional value and C. makes their child feel important and supernatural in an uncaring natural world. Atheists get a bad name from takes like this...
That’s really cruel :( I have family that won’t read their kids the books until they are over ten partly to avoid disappointment. Also they can read the whole series in their teens without help and they do get a bit dark.
This is fucked up but it's no different from teaching your kind there is a god and you will go to hell if you disappoint him.
To be honest the family goes a little further than that with the family connections, but saying that they used magic in the past is the same as saying you prayed to God and got what you wanted
For the people saying that this is basically like Santa Clause, Santa only comes on Christmas and only comes on Christmas. You get excited for Santa for one month and that’s it, you go back to your normal lives. Now imagine if Santa came everyday, he would be normalized and would appear in everyday life. Kids would think that Santa was someone that is real in everyday imaginable. Now let’s say someone breaks the news to kids around the world. The kids world (consisting mainly of Santa) would be crushed. Now let’s say this kid in the story realizes that house elves aren’t real, she would think “well what else isn’t real?” Eventually she would find out the truth, and her world consisting of every single species, spells, locations of the Harry Potter world were and never will be real. She would be crushed.
TL/DR: r/readanotherbook
This is way fucking stupid but I agree with them about raising children to believe outlandish biblical stories such as a 600 year old senior citizen built a gigantic boat and somehow rounded up 2 of every animal, or that a woman conceived a child without sexual relations or that when an invisible man in the sky got really mad one time he made it rain frogs and locusts and flooded the earth. In the wise words of George Carlin “It’s all bullshit and it’s all bad for you”
I dont think the comparison to religion is fair, kids being told Jesus is real isn't the same as telling them if they're good enough they'll be one of the 12 apostles. The parents aren't framing this in the same way belief is they are teaching pure fiction (that was created for the purpose of entertainment) as fact.
"the fanfic that is our lives" I want to die
And the mental health issues that are your future.
Imagine the disappointment. Every day. As that letter doesnt arrive.
Knowing you are a squib. A failure.
A Filch, basically
An everyday-joy-suck
A mudblood
Yes officer, this comment here
My parents never tricked me like this at all, and I was still disappointed I didn’t get one 😂
Was about to say the same am 19 now but a part of me is still waiting for that letter.
Everytime i see a broomstick. I hop on it like a horse
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Very carefully
Carephilly
Cheesy
Nah, it's perfect
One leg at a time
*notices you riding broom* What are you doing, step-redditor? Edit: I sent this to the wrong person the first time, and I feel like a dumbass.
I'm American, yet still some part of me genuinely hoped I'd get a letter from a British school for British wizards.
Then it does and one day, POOF! she's gone......never to be seen by her Muggle parents again. edit: until they dig up the concrete foundations of the new highschool....
r/TwoSentenceHorror
Woof
Why don't muggle siblings get to go to Hogwarts? It's not for secrecy. No one erased Petunia's memory so she knows about the Wizarding World. Do you need magic to take history, herbology, muggle studies? Hagrid isn't magic and teaches care of magical creatures. Sure you can't take potions or defense against the dark arts, but surely you can study something there.
Yeah like doesn't the Wizarding world know anything about science, complex math, literature? There should be general studies programs for squibs and non-magical people who want to be support in the Wizarding world.
The ONLY character I can relate to is Petunia who found out there was this magical world and she just wasn't born special enough so they didn't want anything to do with her. No wonder she was a bitter bitch the rest of her life.
Hagrid is magic, he just happened to get expelled during his time as an student.
But hagrid could be a very good wizard actually. He can do magic spells without saying a spell. Even Voldemort and dumbledore say their spells up loud.
Voldemort, Dumbledore, and even Hermione off the top of my head can cast spells nonverbally, but they don't most of the time because it's exhausting
Imagine being a poor kid when santa doesn’t arrive. Or being raised christian and god ignores every one of your prayers.
I'm pretty sure this is an origin story for a future Harry Potter themed serial killer. "Moaning Myrtle kills 3 in Houston- Writes 'Mudbloods' with entrails" "She who must not be named has a cult following numbering in the thousands." "Massacre in small town leaves one baby boy alive."
Yup, human sacrifice to get the gods’ attention.
I think this is how to raise an eventual atheist, Source: was also raised o in a cult.
No. I’m an atheist and you can thank the Roman Catholic Church for that.
Ditto
The Roman Catholic Church turned me into a Witch (Wiccan) oddly enough.
Big facts! 😂😂😂
> "Moaning Myrtle kills 3 in Houston- Writes 'Mudbloods' with entrails" Nah, that kind of weird only happens in Austin...it's the Portland of the South.
They have to be bullshitting. Her teachers think it's awesome and creative? Sure they do bro a completely realistic reaction that a totally real person would have. :l
Plot twist, the kid is homeschooled
This is so cruel, reminds me a bit of the Truman show
Reminds me of every single religion out there...
Religious people believe in what they tell their kids. You may disagree but it's people carrying on their own beliefs and traditions. If they are wrong then it's because they don't know better. In this case, these people do not believe in magic but still lie to their kid. I think that's much worse
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This is WAY more disappointing than any of those other things. They have filled her with this thought that her whole being is magical. Can you imagine how traumatizing it could be to discover you and everything you thought you knew about yourself was untrue?
Yes. It’s called a religious upbringing. I was raised to believe Jesus Christ will come back soon and take us all. Obviously didn’t happen. Huge letdown.
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Well, you have to factor in here that this is what I had been told quite literally since birth. So, you tend to believe what your parents and adults tell you. Also, my parents mostly had friends from the same circles, so they all agreed with eachother. The believe of a lot of more evangelical Christians (More specific in my case the more extremish Pentecostal kind) believe that Jesus Christ will some day come back to earth to collect his ‘children’ and safe them from the apocalypse. And they believe that there are signs of when this would happen, which are mostly signs that can basically always be true. I’m sure there are Christians out there who think the pandemic is a sign of Jesus returning soon. And this damaging believe was thought (teached? Not English native, sorry) to me and my siblings in a quite literal and direct fashion, and all others (non believers) would either perish in Hell or stay on earth and live through the apocalypse.
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I think the main problem is belief ("faith") in things we have no good reason to think are true. You then come to rely on ancient books which most likely will jave a mix of good and terrible advice in them because they were written by people who extrapolated from limited information. Cherry-picking is necessary since a lot of it won't line up with modern knowledge. On the whole, accommodating what we now know into the religion will moderate it and make it more tolerable to those outside the belief. Rejecting modern knowledge or cherry-picking only to match with a hateful agenda will cause more conflict with others. But both approaches share the same fundamental flaw of trying to salvage ancient beliefs without a rational choosing process.
If you think it’s a “letdown” that it isn’t happening, I’m really not sure you actually *read* Revelations…
Well, I didn’t at age 12, no.
Those don't potentially derail career ambitions or fuck you up for life - nobody goes to therapy over the tooth fairy. I'm sure some Jewish kids brought up Santa a couple times though
It’s much worst for 2 reasons. Firstly religions are really sneaky in that nothing is provable, whereas this barefaced gas lighting will be revealed. Second, religious people can be somewhat forgiven by their kids, when they realise it is all baloney but that the parents 💯 believers.
Except they know for an absolute fact that they are lying to the kid.
Some people will believe anything, like a vaccine will cause magnetism
So is Santa Clause. You know for a fact you’re lying for the feeling of magic on Christmas Morning.
I told my son that Santa is the spirit of giving. I didn't want to lie to him.
would you rather deal with Santa along with most of the country or have the only harry potter pyscos ?
Oh no question, the Santa lie is harmless, those harry potter people are batshit crazy! There is no way this poor child is going to come out of that undamaged. Everyone at school probably thinks she is crazy or stuck up already.
I never told my kids about Santa Claus. Society did (cartoons, etc). I was careful to never say to them that Santa was real. When they were mature enough to ask me sincerely about it I told the truth. These parents are deliberately deceiving their child about the nature of the world she lives in. I see trouble up ahead.
Yeah and they don't know they're lying when they tell you a guy lived in a whale, ok.
You're right; they don't know for sure. But these parents **literally say they know that it's false**. So there's a huge difference
Dude why that hate for religions? Obvisily the Bible shouldnt be taken by word and most of the storys are propavly metaphors.
"A 2011 Gallup survey reports, "Three in 10 Americans interpret the Bible literally, saying it is the actual word of God."
Yeah ok but 3 of 10 americans also do other crazy shit like shooting for fun etc
(Checks Venn Diagram……)
It's a circle
Yes.
Religion is extremely divisive. Ever since people like Pope Urban it realized it could be used as a control mechanism of the masses it has been. In no way am i saying religion wasnt a useful tool for people at one time. It gave us the ability to work together in large groups through shared myths, but were past that now. We have other shared beliefs that allow us to work together. for example we can work together for the most part because we all share the belief in geographic locations, although there are no lines on the ground and names running through countries, we all agree Germany is Germany. For the most part we agree on currencies, we even agree fiat currencies have worth because of our other shared belief, governments. We now possess the knowledge to answer the majority of the questions the Bible set out to answer. How does the human body work...god of course. How do plants grow....umm god. Now we have the answers to a lot of these questions, interpreted through math and science, the true languages of the universe. Religion has passed its shelf life. And it's becoming detrimental to maintaining a cohesive social environment. Disclaimer: some content is copy/pasted from MY previous posts
I'm pretty sure that religion was a prevalent form of control long before there was a Catholic Church. Actually, I'm pretty sure it's been exactly that since its inception. Seneca, who predates the change of the eras (BCE vs CE) by a couple of years (by birth, at least), said something to the effect of 'the common man thinks religion is truth, wise men think it folly, and princes find it useful. ' Religion is extremely divisive because that's the point. Power brokers seek to retain control over their bases by defining who we are and aren't at best, and defining who we are in terms of who the 'others' are more frequently than not. In-group out-group biases are frequently the simplest and clearest way to corral people into a position over which an authoritarian can exert dominance. The Reformation can be seen to have gotten its gas from the political situation among the small principates of middle and western Europe around 1517 - they saw an up and comer in Luther who, if he was successful, could redirect their taxes from the HRE to more local (and probably cheaper) efforts, thus improving their own rules and pockets while deepening their control as heads of not just their states, but also their own newly minted churches either openly or by appointing those who were loyal to their designs. Marx wasn't right about much, but that whole 'opiate of the masses' piece was a great observation. Like any opiate medication it can be an aid to help a patient through a tough time, but taken too much and too long, it make the addict insensate to their obligations and divorces them from reality.
We have enough real problems in the world. Scarce, material things to fight over but we are wasting time, resources and lives fighting over some outdated, obsolete, imagined construct
Have you never met people before? Why would it surprise you people would actually believe this?
The difference is that religions rely on faith and 99% of religious people live like everyone else and think of god a few times a day at max. On the other hand, believing you're a witch who can perform magic etc is something completely different. That girl will have to face the harsh reality one day, whereas plenty of religious people die with their faith.
I don't quite believe you know every religion, their structure and their belief in that all religions would act as kind of like through one operation. Do you mean faith in general as the worst thing in religion?
Why is every religon loped up in those dozen bad apples? Why would be passing down of tradition and culture be brainwashing?
Because this is reddit
average r/atheism user
Woah, so edgy, so cool :0 Always strikes me as crazy when people like to talk about theology the same way antivaxxers talk about modern medicine
A big issue they are gonna have in the future is the fact that she will alienate herself from her current peers because she believes she is a level above them and the longer she believes the longer she will alienate herself from reality
Yea like my cousin who was allowed to believe in Santa til 13 cause her uncle said he'd "kill" anyone who ruined the magic
But at least Santa is external and only relevant a couple of months, if you believe in Santa and find out he isn’t real you are a bit sad. But when you find out that you aren’t magical you lose faith in yourself, you lose part of the personality that has been built for you and your relationship with your parents is probably destroyed.
Not just that if they have all of their passion put into being something that they later find out is totally unachievable then it could lead to a lot of wasted effort and potential. It would kind of be like a case of incarceration where they are systematically kept in a cage and all they know is the cage and once they are out all they want to do after seeing how complex life is is get back in the cage which could spiral very easily.
I don't think telling kids that stories are true always a bad thing, everyone's been doing it with Santa. The problem is, they tell her she is part of the story, and keep lying about her life again and again. I can't imagine what will happen when she'll realise that everything about her life was a lie, she could even have an existencial crisis.
Imagine that, and then you realize it was all made up but you hold on to it for a long time because it’s so hard to let go and go through a years long struggle mentally and emotionally. Then imagine that almost everyone else still believes the story and you are kind of ostracized to some extent for the rest of your life. That’s what it was like for me becoming and atheist.
When I was a very little, my father told me he was part alligator and that during thunderstorms at night he went out to lay in the ditch and transform. I believed this without question; my dad wouldn’t lie to me! He had an elaborate back story. I used to watch at the window when it rained, convinced if I waited long enough, I’d see him transform. I believed this implicitly until grade four, when we had to stand up in front of the class and talk about something interesting about our family. I chose Dad the gator. I can still feel the scalding rush of humiliation that washed over me with the derision of kids who, to that moment, had been my friends. When my teacher confirmed that Dad was not part reptile, I realized I had been gaslighted by my own father. It’s been many decades since, and I can remember it as if it were yesterday. The teasing and finger pointing lingered into high school, and I never completely trusted my dad again. That’s what these people have set their daughter up for.
Aww:( I feel so bad for you, I want to hug little 4th grade you so bad.
Thank you! 4th grade me could have used a hug!
My dad told me he was a rabbit in a former life which lead to him being absolutely obsessed with carrots. But he told his story always as a joke, even as a little kid i was never sure if he was telling the truth or just fucking around. I mean, I'm now in my twenties and i still can't be sure that he wasn't a rabbit, but the fact that he only ate carrots while telling this story makes me wonder a little. I'm sorry you had to go through this... On another note: I really really hope that person from the HP post is just seeking attention and that story is not real. If it is, i pray to any god they come to their senses as soon as possible. Imagine you write out the words "i know this is gaslighting and will resolve in immeasurable disappointment and trust issues, but i think 5-9 years of fun, if it's actually fun for my child and not just a normal thing she's not gonna bet an eye about during those years, warrant a lifetime of 50-90 years, ten times the duration, of emotional scarring, perhaps mental illnesses like depression and possibly hatred towards her parents, all the while she will not remember her childhood as magical during those adult years, but just a big lie and letdown, yes this is a good thing" and actually believe it. Those people would need help. And i say "would" because i genuinely want to believe it is not real.
I’m sorry you went through that, kids can be so cruel to each other. I hope your teacher did something to try to lessen the humiliation. But if you ever wanted to turn this into a novel, I’d totally read it.
Thank you! You’re really kind!
This is abuse, sadly not the kind CPS would involve themselves in.
I was thinking the same. If I saw this at a client's house I would report it. Just not sure if they'd actually do something.
I've seen some pretty awful homes working EMS, I always report it to CPS and social services. If there is any food, and water, they are basically done there. I've seen no power, filth, mountains of trash, and other things I thought would certainly result in a response, but no.
I'm an ABA therapist, my in home visits are usually standard. But sometimes I see some wild shit, and I'm thinking "How do you feel this is acceptable?"
You are a what now?
What about santa clause is that abuse? We lie to kids all the time... I do think this is on a new level and wouldn't do it to my kids... but its not so bad. I believe that christians lie to their kids with a more fundamental lie. The extradition of my religion was quite painful.
It's pretty bad though. Santa is one entity that brings gifts once a year. These people are making her believe she is magic. What you teach your kids doesn't only affect them directly, it also makes a difference how their environment reacts to them being "different" during a life phase when all kids want to be as much like the others as possible.
I don't lie to children about Santa or anything else for the most part. If they ask me, I will reply honestly as best I can for their age group and understanding. It has really pissed parents off when I have done that, but I don't believe lying to be a good foundation for any relationship or fostering future trust. As for religion, it is different in that these parents know for an absolute fact that they are lying and that the child isn't a magical being. Religious parents believe that they are sharing the facts as best they know them. And remember, Religion isn't just Christianity.
I read the first sentence and immediately laughed to myself. Oh how I wish I could be there to see when this poor girl realizes that her parents are crazy obsessed fans who've been lying to her her entire life.
That'll probably come after her 11th Birthday when no letter from Hogwarts arrives. But maybe they'll tell her she's a squib, and keep the lie going.
Lmao, that would suck of they told her she's a squib
They have services to get a personalized letter from Hogwarts...
The lie is still gonna end 3 weeks later when that kid smashes her nose in while running at a wall (that is not located between the platforms 9 and 10 at Kings Cross because between those platforms is no wall. J.K. fucked that up)
Parents r stuck in 8th grade yikes
Reality gonna hit her harder than Dumbledore's body hit the ground
I'm fairly sure this is a thinly veiled jab at religion
And a good one too, its the exact same thing except Harry Potter is actually fun.
It's not the same though. With Harry Potter & modern magic storys we know it's fiction as the author is quite well known. Whereas in religion you can't disprove the existence of God. More importantly, religious people believe in their religion as well - if you disagree with all religions, religious parents are "only" dumb/naive people carrying on the tradition they believe in. In this case, these parents however don't believe in Magic themselves but still lie to their kid - which is considerably worse. And at last, religions are quite accepted in out society. This kid might be bullied later once it gets older depending on how long they keep up this theater Edit: I just realized, it's basically like with Santa
Can you disprove the existence of wizards?
When one adult has an imaginary friend, they are labeled as crazy. When many people have the same imaginary friend, it's called a religion. Growing up people get over tooth fairy, santa, boogey man... Why is god so difficult to get rid of? Oh, and many religious people are hypocritical and don't truly believe, otherwise there wouldn't be so many people going against what their religion tells them.
When's something has been going strong for more then 300 years,it starts to solidify itself into their followers culture
While it is true that we can't prove of disprove the existence of a higher power we can however easily disprove the existence of the "all knowing" "all loving" benevolent "god" of the Abrahamic religions. All you have to do is look at the misery, suffering, famine, and plagues that ravage our society. An "all loving, merciful " God would not allow that to happen. There very well may be a "higher power" of some kind out there. But, it doesn't care about us in the least. And the sycophantic idolization perpetuated by believers does nothing but limit and degrade human society and evolution.
I just want to say: * Epicurean paradox. * “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.” - Christopher Hitchens.
Now we are deep into theology :) That's an age old question. There are multiple attempts in various religions to explain suffering. A God can in my opinion certainly be all knowing but not interfer so people can find their own paths. But granted it's not really "loving". It's wrong though to describe the Abrahamic god as "all loving" in the first place, in the old testament there are multiple stories where God destroyed cities as punishment for their sins, destroyed a man's life and made him suffer just to test his faith for a bet with the devil etc. There is also really fucked up shit in there, which is the reason why European Christians tend to ignore the old testament except for the better stories in there.
I was raised catholic...the systemic hypocrisy, ignorance, and the fact that they cherry pick passages to suit their ideals (Christians mostly but all religions are guilty of this to some extent) observing these actions as a child and coming to understand the idiocy of it as a teenager led me to be an Athiest. And watching how people of different dogmatic beliefs rage and war against each other has moved me into the realm of anti-theism. There is no benefit to the belief of a higher power to anyone of standard or higher intelligence. The only people who benefit from the imaginary cloud wizard are those of lesser intellectual capacity by giving them something to guide their lives. Anyone with a triple digit IQ that believes in a religion is willfully ignorant and has chosen to ignore the contradictions in every religious text that disprove themselves.
Pft muggles...
She won't have "trust issues" with these parents. As soon as she realizes that her entire childhood was a sham staged by sociopaths she will cut any contact with them and spend the rest of her life trying to heal wounds. Parents like this is why I more and more feel we need some kind of parent-certification since all kinds of nasty people are allowed to have kids.
i still feel betrayed by the whole Santa shenanigan, i can’t even begin to imagine how i would feel in that little girl’s place.
This will end well, I’m sure
In prison, hopefully.
When I got to the bit where they claim their daughter’s teachers think this an awesome idea I’m pretty sure it’s fiction. Anyway if her teachers know then it’s not much of a secret and her friends or other family are going to tell her she’s not really a wizard. If she did go to school spouting the believe she’s a wizard she’s just going to get bullied.
People wonder how half our country can believe an election was stolen.
But she's asking critical questions NOW and you're just lying, lmao!
If there is a bad parenting subreddit, this totally belongs there. “We know it’s gaslighting and that eventually she’ll…have trust issues with us…” And that’s okay? This isn’t a Santa Claus Isn’t Real moment. Her entire childhood is a lie. Also, she’s 8, and soon when she talks about this to her friends she is going to get made fun of and bullied by her peers. And then he asks for tips on *more* ways they can ruin their child! Shitty parenting at its shittiest.
They say it’s akin to believing a major religion and then realizing it’s not true. Well let me tell you. Having to unlearn and go through a lengthy and mentally exhausting deconversion process is no small deal and ensuring your child will have that in their near future is extremely cruel. Think of how isolated this girl will feel when she finds out.
And at least you didn't have the additional burden of knowing that the people you love most in the world knew it was wrong all along, and were just lying to you.
That’s true. So it really makes this seem malicious. Even though they think it is harmless, it is far from it
They should try being murdered by a murderous wizard, sending the kid to a Foster family via boarding school and eventually growing up to be an independent young woman free from their madness.
Wouldn’t actually be surprised if they did that
Im 100% an athiest, but to all the extremely brilliant, intuitive, and heroic people in the comments saying “haha this is just like religion” there is a mile-wide line between parents trying to save the souls of their children get them into the afterlife in completely good intentions, and mentally ill parents convincing their daughter that a book series is real for kicks and internet points. Have a good day.
Exactly I can understand people believing in god because it gives them the feeling that someone is watching over them and that there really is someone out there besides the nothingness of space. Also the fact that if you die you go to heaven, it’s a lot better then thinking that when you die you’ll go to heaven instead of well, just dying. Plus if your an atheist you shouldn’t tell people well haha this is religion and it sucks, just like how religious people shouldn’t force religion on people.
I mean athiests who think religion is bad in general are called anti-theists I believe, and a large portion of them essentially cyber bully people who mention they’re religious.
Ahh ok thanks for the output, it just seems that the word atheist gets thrown around a lot so much it means “person who hates religion” instead of “person who doesn’t believe in religion”, just like how some “feminists” ruined feminism reputation by saying “kill all men” instead of “give equal rights to women”.
Christ, hopefully this is bait but if not she won’t just just be disappointed, reality as she knows it will be shattered. I’d be very surprised if it didn’t lead to some kind of mental breakdown for that poor kid.
As someone who was consistently lied to by my parents about something which they both definitely knew was false, I can just imagine that by the time the girl is a teen, she will feel so much shame and embarrassment about things she believed and thought and did, as well as just always wondering *why* they felt the need to do this and never really understanding the reason for the lies.
This poor kid. Comparing religion to making your child believe that they have actual magical powers is stupid. With religion, you at least share common beliefs with other people. They are setting this kid up to be ostracized, teased mercilessly, bullied. Once other kids find out that this child truly believes they are part of the magical community, their peace is over. The problem here is that the parents have such a hard time relating to the real world that they are living out fanfic, wistful and mourning that HP isn't real. And now thye have inflicted it on their child. There is nothing wrong with cosplay, but that's not what is happening here. They are actually loving their lives as though this stuff is real, and they're dragging their child along with them.
Worse, they have treated their own child as an elaborate cosplay prop.
AMA My parents tricked me to believe I was a witch from Harry Potter when I was growing up.
Time to tell her the truth before she becomes a young adult and resents you forever for lying.
Never have I ever wanted so badly to reach through the internet and slap someone up-side their stupid heads. People like this don’t deserve children, they deserve to be thrown into a cesspool so at least they can be covered in what they’re already full of.
Slap? I was wanting to do a doom eternal style midair glory kill skull crush. But yknow, same thing
I’ve never hoped someone was trolling so bad in my entire life!
How to destroy your child’s trust in you 101.
That is guna be one weird fucking kid when they get to middle school / high school
They do make a good correlation between the wizarding world and religion. My main concern is that the daughter might try to use magic in a bad situation and seriously get injured trying to "force her gift" to come out.
Can you link the original thread? I NEED to see this train wreck with my own eyes.
They literally admit it’s gaslighting wtf why do they think it’s okay
"and have trust issues with us when she learns the truth" Fuck you. You are horrible parents. Never do something knowing it will give your child trust issues.
Gaslighted = traumatized. This is childabuse
They’ll need an obliviate charm on the young-un very soon and will have to start all over.
It's things like this that create some mentally ill children
Spoiler alert Ian Banks "The Wasp Factory" . . . . parents raise "Frank" as a boy for "him" to learn in adolescence she is actually a girl. Parents' explanation: "It was an experiment!"
Can anyone link me to this post so I can read the comments?
The best way to inject Harry Potter is to burn the books and put the ashes in a syringe
"We know this will cause trust problems" What the fuck that's worse then parents that don't know/think their doing anything wrong
I wonder about the repercussions that will ensue when the girl spills to her friends that she's a witch and insists it's true. I predict epic bullying to the point she has to change schools. In fact, at age 8 I can't believe it hasn't happened already. That plus the claim that the teachers actually endorse this behavior is causing me to suspect this story isn't even true.
Parents should not try to choreograph their kid’s fantasy lives. Talk about helicopter parenting!
Ok it is not analgous to religious stories or santa claus or any of that. It is like teaching a child that THEY THEMSELVES ARE SANTA CLAUS. These parents are going to try and take this straight through highschool. I feel bad for the kid, the best years will be destroyed
And here I was thinking Santa will be an awkward conversation.
What in the Kentucky Fried Fuck is this?
EVERYONE WAIT. Isn’t this just called religion?
I think a religion has to be more than one person and has to be quite old otherwise it's labelled a cult.
This is terrible but the part near the end about religion is actually kinda true lol. Kids packed with religious beliefs screaming now in their 50s that our rights come from GOD, not the government. Santa, tooth fairy, Easter bunny.
Well, guess we got our next drug addicted, mental broken, hooker with trust issues. The moment the Illusion shatters is the moment she will break.
Now let’s talk about Santa clause
Knew with 5 years that Santa Clause is not real, neither Jesus and that the entire religion is a giant hoax. Yeah, had a lot of problems with my religion teachers and other members of the church in my life.
No, it's not like religion. People don't raise kids in faith they don't believe in. This is more like sociopaths in a cult or a dictatorship, raising slaves with absolute obedience to the great leader. And using that to get absolutely and utterly useless basic school grades from that so you can do a dick measuring contest with Helen next door is pretty cringy.
On the one hand, I'm appalled. On the other, all parents do this to a degree with Santa Claus. Where's the line?
I think it's the 100% emersion part that makes the difference.
All parents??
It’s the fact that Santa Clause only “appears” one day a year and isn’t your whole world.
Ngl this makes me want to watch the movies now
Nutsis Maxiumus! (Waving my wand)
I am so sad for this girl already. I think this is ever so cruel and stupid of the parents. That "magic" can so easily be brought in during play.
I have trust issues with you now 😜
Kind of like taking the Santa thing to the nth degree...
Bibbity bobbity boop
this is why I didn't want to teach my kids about santa, they were heartbroken when they found out, since I was veto'd on that one, and this is just that same premise but on fucking acid.
sniff... sniff... bullshit?
Obvious bullshit.
What are they going to do when she turns 11 and doesn’t get a Hogwarts letter and figures out she can’t do actual magic? Tell her she’s a squib and hope she isn’t disappointed? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fostering creativity and letting kids believe in magic - parents have been doing it for generations with things like fairy tales and Disney. But this is on an intense level that will probably cause psychological trauma in the form of things like trust issues and an identity crisis when she finds out her parents have been purposefully misleading her throughout her entirely life about something they knew without a doubt to be fiction. Parents who raise their kids to be religious actually believe it to be true, otherwise they wouldn’t raise their children to believe it. That takes the hurt off if the kids grow up and realize they don’t believe in the religion they were brought up in. Parents tell their kids about Santa because it is so common it’s basically inescapable, benign, and not something that will change the fabric of their lives when they find out he isn’t real. This…this is just selfish. You can teach kids good values and life/moral lessons without knowingly lying to them about their family genealogy and who they are as a person in regards to having special abilities. These parents just want to live out their dreams of being wizards at the expense of their child.
Telling an elaborate series of lies, over the course of years, to a child so that when they find out the truth it will "teach them to ask critical questions and not accept things at face value" - how is that different from beating them in the name of "toughening them up"? And the part where the parent says "We know she'll have trust issues with us" - as a parent myself, my children's trust in me is an amazing privilege that I'm so grateful for. I *never* want to betray that trust, and if I lost it I would be devastated. I don't think these parents understand what it is they'll lose when their child learns to see them as untrustworthy. And when they do realise, it'll be too late.
I still have issues about being lied to about Santa Claus. The fucking damage this is going to do to the kid, that the parents are AWARE OF, yet are still going ahead because they're narcissists who want to live a life of fanfic and will destroy their child's life to do it.
I lie to my daughter about magical and fantastical things all the time and I never admit I’m lying but she also knows I’m lying. She plays along now asking questions and adding details. Bam, magic and mystery injected into her life with out the unnecessary life long therapy bills. These two idiots are fucking that kid up.
I was upset enough when I found out about Santa. This kid is gonna have some real issues if they don’t figure it out themselves soon
Quick, tell her about Santa and Jesus.
Meh. Less damaging than magic sky fairies that hate other people who believe in other magic sky fairies.... and rapey priests Edit - typo
When Christians do it, everyone praises them for being so pious. When Harry Potter fans do it...
The difference being that Christians, Muslims, Hindus ad nauseam all believe that there is a kernel of truth to their traditions. These parents are consciously weaving a false narrative that A. they don't believe in. B. has no traditional value and C. makes their child feel important and supernatural in an uncaring natural world. Atheists get a bad name from takes like this...
Well, some people taught their kids about religion.
That’s really cruel :( I have family that won’t read their kids the books until they are over ten partly to avoid disappointment. Also they can read the whole series in their teens without help and they do get a bit dark.
Abusive, as we don’t have enough religions
This is fucked up but it's no different from teaching your kind there is a god and you will go to hell if you disappoint him. To be honest the family goes a little further than that with the family connections, but saying that they used magic in the past is the same as saying you prayed to God and got what you wanted
That part with the religion indoctrination is high key the same thing
For the people saying that this is basically like Santa Clause, Santa only comes on Christmas and only comes on Christmas. You get excited for Santa for one month and that’s it, you go back to your normal lives. Now imagine if Santa came everyday, he would be normalized and would appear in everyday life. Kids would think that Santa was someone that is real in everyday imaginable. Now let’s say someone breaks the news to kids around the world. The kids world (consisting mainly of Santa) would be crushed. Now let’s say this kid in the story realizes that house elves aren’t real, she would think “well what else isn’t real?” Eventually she would find out the truth, and her world consisting of every single species, spells, locations of the Harry Potter world were and never will be real. She would be crushed. TL/DR: r/readanotherbook
This is way fucking stupid but I agree with them about raising children to believe outlandish biblical stories such as a 600 year old senior citizen built a gigantic boat and somehow rounded up 2 of every animal, or that a woman conceived a child without sexual relations or that when an invisible man in the sky got really mad one time he made it rain frogs and locusts and flooded the earth. In the wise words of George Carlin “It’s all bullshit and it’s all bad for you”
I dont think the comparison to religion is fair, kids being told Jesus is real isn't the same as telling them if they're good enough they'll be one of the 12 apostles. The parents aren't framing this in the same way belief is they are teaching pure fiction (that was created for the purpose of entertainment) as fact.