My almost 6-year-old son asked me straight out this weekend whether the Easter Bunny was real. I was in such shock that I stuttered something unintelligible and changed the subject.
Not to be put off, Daniël pipes up again from his car chair: “But mom, do you promise it’s not you who hides the Easter eggs?”
His 3-year-old brother was in the car too, so not wanting to let the bunny completely out the bag I managed to divert him with a promise of “let’s discuss this when Ruben isn’t listening”.
I was not expecting this question for another 2 years at least! He’s a smart kid, so this is definitely going to snowball. It was nice knowing you, Father Christmas!
Daniël doesn’t seem too phased about the Easter Bunny not being real though. It was me who was really crushed. Why is there no manual for parents on this sort of thing?
I think these fictional characters represented for me the innocence and sweet fantasies that encapsulate the essence of childhood. I know growing up is inevitable, and probably even necessary, but I don’t want their childhoods to end.
I can remember as a child spending hours building fairy gardens at the bottom of my grandmother’s garden and the intense excitement of waiting for Santa to arrive.
Being able to share in that again with my sons has been such a joy.
Even today I love to pretend I still believe in fairies. Authors like Robert Jordan (The Wheel of Time), JK Rowling (Harry Potter) and J. R. R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) have been my gateway into other worlds.
Closer to home, one outlet for my love of make-believe are the books written by my school friend Rachel Goetsch, who goes by the pen name Rachel Morgan, and her incredible fantasy series.
Having already demolished Creepy Hollow and its magical world of guardian-in-training fairies, I am now hooked on her Ridley Kayne Chronicles set in dystopian urban fantasy world where magic is outlawed and everyone has secrets.
Rachel is to blame for the dark rings under my eyes each morning, after reading until the wee hours.
I am just waiting for her books to be snapped up for the next hit Netflix series. Really, they are that good.
One word of advice though Rachel, and any other aspiring authors out there, make sure to finish your series before you get caught up in the bright lights of Hollywood.
Cough, cough, George RR Martin of Game of Thrones fame. It turns out lockdown might be just what was needed to motivate Mr Martin, who last year revealed he was isolating in “an actual cabin in the mountains” and hoped to finish his long long long awaited novel The Winds of Winter “next year”.
It’s only been 9 years since the last book in the series, so what’s the hurry?
Just don’t pull a Robert Jordan on us and die before you finish your book (author Brandon Sanderson had to step in to finish The Wheel of Time for him. . .).
At least with Rachel I don’t think we have too much to fear. In the past 9 years that she has been a self-publishing author, she has produced 19 books!
Yowzah, and even now with a toddler in the mix she’s managing to bring out new books. I cannot wait for the next one Rachel, keep it up!
***
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” – J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan.
-
-
-
-
