
I have often proclaimed my love for letter writing. I love to write cards and letters. Even more I love to receive letters. This love for letter writing is something that I have fostered upon my children. The children know that post-birthday and post-Christmas they need to sit down and write their thank you letters. Okay, Youngest is not able to write a fully comprehensible letter and as such I write it and she signs it off with her scrawl. It’s what I imagine working as a lady in waiting is like,
“Ma’am, this is your letter to the Prime Minister saying thank you for all of their help in steering this country towards post-Brexit doom, if you could just sign here”
Except Youngest is not the Queen, she is more of a mini-dictator, she walks to the beat of her own drum.
” Youngest, this is your thank you letter to Little Granny, could you just put your name here…..oh we are drawing, oh how lovely, oh what is that? A poo. Hmmm, you have drawn a massive turd over Little Granny’s thank you letter. How lovely.”
It is fair to say that having children has removed some of the joy of letter writing for myself. It is now a somewhat stressful experience. One that takes hours and hours. Now the letter writing has evolved and it is my fault. One Christmas a couple of years ago, Oldest was being a little naughty. Father Christmas was worried that she wasn’t behaving so he wrote her a letter telling her to sort out her behaviour. Before you judge me, it worked! Yes, but then Oldest developed a whole pen pal relationship with Father Christmas. She kept sending so many letters to Father Christmas. Every night for a fortnight! She wanted to know if Mrs Claus was nice, she wanted to know how many elves worked for him, she even wanted to know where he purchased his red suit. The letter writing only stopped when Father Christmas explained he was going to have to stop writing letters to her or he would miss his Christmas deadline and therefore no children would have presents. Oldest, fearing that her letter writing might cause Christmas to be cancelled, promptly stopped. Again, don’t judge.
Then, much to my relief, the letter writing was put on hold. That was until Oldest’s tooth fell out and she informed me that at school other children had received not only money from the fairy but also a letter. Again, I found myself writing a teeny, tiny letter in fairy writing. Do you know how difficult it is to write in teeny-tiny writing? On a Friday night I found myself writing under a magnifying glass, coming up with a whole back story for this fairy. The older me was very proud of my efforts. The younger me would have quietly sobbed into her cocktail at how Friday night had become fairy night. Yet, I felt the warm rush of paternal glow when Oldest was delighted with her letter. But this paternal glow quickly faded when we went through a whole pen pal relationship again. I was spending my evenings toiling away, on a production line of teeny-tiny letters. This went on until the fairy announced that she was going to have stop writing letters because she had missed her deadline for delivering money to the children whose teeth had fallen out. The tooth fairy revealed that as such she had been given a written warning by chief fairy and therefore she would have to stop writing letters. Oldest immediately ceased her letter writing, worried that money boxes the world over would become empty because of her letter writing. Again, don’t judge.
Now it is Easter and every Easter I have the same argument with Oldest. She insists on writing the Easter Bunny a letter. Every Easter I refuse to play along, I am not going to write a letter as the Easter Bunny. Every Easter she gets cross when there is no letter from the bunny and every Easter I have to say
“Of course the Easter Bunny can’t write letters. He doesn’t have opposable thumbs. The Easter Bunny doesn’t write letters”
To which she looks at me and asks
“Then how can he carry a basket of eggs and deliver chocolate to us. How did he open our door? If he can open our door, then he can write a letter”
I can’t start letter writing from the Easter Bunny. If I do that then I fear the Easter Bunny will have to come up with an escape route and the only one I can think of is rabbit casserole. I have already traumatised Youngest enough with letter writing. I wish that I had never started this letter writing in the first place. Give me emails any day 😉
Ha ha – you had me giggling so much at this Emma!! Don’t like to say it, but Oldest does have a point about the Easter Bunny there! My oldest is 4, so I’m still writing thank you letters and Santa letter for him – with the scrawl. Funnily enough he mentioned something the other day about writing to the Easter Bunny, but I managed to brush it off. I think he was about to ask for various Japanese surprise eggs that he’s seen on you tube – that probably only the Easter Bunny could ever get! Phew, narrow escape! x
Hilarious post! I love the idea of letter writing but I’m rethinking it now… I don’t know if my boy’s grandparents want a massive poo drawn all over their letter!
Sounds like you have a bit of explaining to do still. We don’t do the Easter bunny here, but I can imagine he’s not a great correspondent!
I LOVED this – full marks for the teeny tiny letter writing! #FridayFrolics
Haha! I hope my kids don’t want to write a letter to the Easter Bunny! I have too much to remember already!
#fridayfrolics
Love this – your little one’s willingness to enter into long term relationships is inspiring!! And to be fair if a team of dogs can save lives in Paw Patrol I’m sure the old Easter bunny could pop out a few words for their biggest fan #FridayFrolics
Hahaha, can imagine you burning the midnight oil writing teeny-weeny fake fairy letters, whilst other mums are blogging;) Hats off to you for being so diligent and patient. Must say you come up with great reasons/ excuses for ending the pen-pal relationships (rabbit casserole is classic) but on another note, it’s such a sweet thing. I’m sure Oldest must be thrilled to receive so many letters from all the folks!
#FridayFrolics
Oh the things we do. I heard a rumour once that if you write to Disney they will write a letter to your child from their favourite character. I have been doing some work for Netflix and Big keeps asking me to write to Netflix with his various program requests! #FridayFrolics
Kids are so smart. My oldest is nine and this year she was like “mom. The easter bunny is NOT a thing.” I could not lie to her. The damn thing is so stupid. Good news is I have a basket stuffing helper now!
#fridayfrolics
This just had me in tears. The good kind 🙂 i love the innocence but also the super sharp deduction powers of little ones. From one journalist to a budding one, keep writing those letters and asking those questions. To your mum: It’s ok to outsource the responses 😉 #fridayfrolics
Haha … that’s hysterical. I made the grave error of a letter from the Tooth Fairy too. Then after 4 teeth fell out in two weeks I prayed for no more! No more fell out and no more grew, she’s had her front 4 teeth missing for nearly 6 months now and I’m feeling a tad guilty – did I jinx her?
#Fridayfrolics.
My hubs seems to have taken on the mantle of letter aficionado and writer backer…. it’s great I just let him get on with it. Our littlest was very happy with her letter back from Santa last year slash the nice people at royal mail (and by that I don’t mean Postman Pat because he’s proper hapless!!) Very funny post #fridayfrolics
Hahah I love this! There is no way we are starting writing letters to the Easter bunny, it seems that children are expecting more and more in terms of Easter and Christmas and a million other events that never seemed to be as big a deal when we were kids! Last year my girls were TERRIFIED of the Easter bunny, they haven’t really mentioned him this year! #fridayfrolics
Ha ha these kids are too smart for their own good danmit #FridayFrolics
Great post Emma, my too both would write a letter to the easter bunny given half a chance, but like yourself I’ve managed to brush it off over the years. Xx
Now that’s dedication to the cause. I’ve written the odd letter from Santa. I remember anow exchange that went on for a few weeks once.
Then there was the odd IOU from the tooth fairy.
I’m firmly in the eldests camp though. If all these others can write letters why can’t the Easter Bunny?
Now put down the gin. Get outhe your best bunny paper and write a letter.
#fridayfrolics
Haha Friday night…fairy night. What have we become? I really enjoyed a glimpse into what I can expect now Big L can write a letter. Thanks for the excuses
#fridayfrolics
What an awesome post! I like to receive letters too. I’m not that fond of writing them. We’re not at this stage yet with Peachy. She’s only 16 months old. Maybe I should stock up on holiday themed post cards so that I’m ready when the time comes. You can’t fit much writing on a post card. #FridayFrolics
sounds like quite a dilemma. Its crazy some of the asinine things we do to keep these little creatures happy and entertained #fridayfrolics
I came out in a cold sweat reading this!!! My Youngest and santa have a letter writing thing going with her asking Santa loads of questions in a letter she leaves in her stocking….How do you deliver all your presents in one night? Does Rudolph like carrots? Did you like the mince pie we left you? etc… WHy, Oh, Why does Santa have handwriting where there are little tiny circular bobbles on the end of each letter in each word like those greetings cards! Bl**dy bobble writing. Bloomin’ questions. #Fridayfrolics
Haha! Yes, I think you can safely say that you have, at some point, rather lost control of this situation! My mum used to write the tiny tooth fairy letters too, with little glitter footprints as well. Fortunately for her, neither my sister nor I could be bothered to start actually corresponding with the tooth fairy! I think you should explain that the Easter Bunny is a magical anthropomorphic manifestation of the spirit of Easter/chocolate, and simply does not exist at any other time of year. He only has time to deliver the Easter eggs before vanishing once more into the ether, and therefore cannot possibly write letters. Or, the Easter Bunny was sadly let down by failings in a school system unequipped to educate a giant festive member of the family Leporidae, and is therefore illiterate. #FridayFrolics
That is the perfect response