No! No! No!

You thought I was judgmental about Bratz dollz and neckties? Well, brace yourself, 'cause I'm about to go on a bit of a Santa rant.

Back Story: Sometimes I click the "next blog" button at the top of the screen just to see the random assortment of things that are out there in the blogosphere. My favorites are the ones in foreign languages, where I have to figure out who it's by and what's going on without benefit of understanding the words. My least favorites are usually the ones by American women, moms specifically, as they tend to get more cutesy than I can handle. (Yes, I do have a blog about my daughter, and, yes, I appreciate the irony of that last statement.) I stumbled on to one of those blogs that makes me cringe today, and since it pushed a holiday hot button for me, I'm gonna tell you all about it.

Let me walk you through it...

The blog was by a mom of two little girls. Most of the blog was about the mom's rabid pursuit of the perfect scrapbook page and included pictures of her pages in progress and links to the sites of her other crafty-type mom friends.  

Today's entry, though, was a picture of her two daughters, who looked like they were about three and five years old, sitting on the lap of a mall Santa. 

They were both screaming. Full-on, eyes wide in terror, get-me-out-of-here screaming. The mom's comment below the picture was How adorable. No winking emoticon to convey sarcasm in her message. No story of how long they'd waited in line, which one started crying first or explanation as to why. In short, no context. Just a picture of two very unhappy-looking girls sitting on a weirdly-calm mall Santa's lap and the words How adorable.

A couple of her crafty-type mom friends had chimed in with comments, all of which included the words cute and hilarious.

Why do people do this?

I don't even know these girls, but my heart went out to them immediately. Going to meet Santa is supposed to be fun. 

Yes, fun. 

For the kids. 

It's for them, not so that Mom and Dad can get a picture to put in the scrapbook. 

So why do people keep their kids in line or go ahead with the picture if the kid's obviously not having any fun?

Last year, my parents took my then one year-old daughter to the mall, and my dad got in line with her to meet Santa. Another child in front of them started crying and saying, "No!" My daughter looked at Grandpa and shook her head to say, "I don't think I like this." Grandpa listened and said they'd try it again another time. Yes, my dad listened to my daughter and respected her wishes. And that's just the sort of thing I love him for. 

Sure, sometimes kids say, "No!" to stuff (like holding your hand when you're crossing the street) that you just have to insist they follow through with for their own safety. Sometimes I go a few rounds with my daughter about her needing to put on her pj's, wear shoes outside, or wash her hands before dinner. I don't back down because those are instances where she's testing the boundaries of her authority to self-govern, as it were. 

Going to visit Santa is a whole 'nother ball game, though.

You can't force a kid to have fun. 

And it's neither cute nor hilarious when people try to.