I open many of my patient interviews after the usual "Hi I'm Dr. Sarah you must be..." with a joke or an open ended "What brings you in tonight?"
Tonight as I introduced myself to my five year old patient and asked what the matter was, the answer I got was "Is there a Santa Claus?" The little fellow had his sister in the room emphatically shaking her head "no" as well as his mom who just looked at me with pleading "just-break-it-to-him-nice-so-I-don't-have-to-do-it-myself" eyes. I was crushed and at a loss for words and like he just had read my mind, so was my patient. I didn't have to say anything. He just knew by the shocked look on my face.
He started crying and all of a sudden everything hurt.
Which brings me to the question Joel and I are pondering:
How far do you go to foster the idea of Santa Claus?
Is it considered lying to your child?
How and when does it end?
Please never bring your kids to the ED to have the pediatrician on call break the bad news and destroy a beloved childhood icon.
3 comments:
Sarah, I think you and Joel are considering great questions. I often consider similar questions myself and I don't even have children! Thanks for giving me a topic for my next Baby Fever post!
Since my name was used in the post and my thoughts mis-represented, I thought I'd chime in. Joel feels that as a family of scientists we must make it clear from the beginning that mom and dad are wrapping all these presents and that even though they may put "from Santa" on the tag, it is just a fun adherence to a tradition much like the fact that we do not really believe there is a tree growing in the middle of our living room (except for the avocado). So I'm a grinch.
seriously??? they brought their kid to the ED to find out about Santa? I really hope the kid had real pain b/c that is one freakin' expensive way to break that news to a kid. I will stop now. Or I will start to rant.
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