Little White Lies

Sometimes, as a mother, I feel like such a fraud. My kids will ask me, over the dinner table, "Are vampires real, mummy?" And I have to respond, "of course they're not," at the same time trying to remember I must put a pound under his pillow before I go to bed, so he believes the Tooth Fairy has been.

And Santa. He's real too, obviously.

As of September I will start reminding them that his 'helpers' are out watching to see if they've been naughty or nice. Santa is great blackmail material. However, it's not so great when I nag the little darlings to treat the PlayStation 3 nicely because Mummy can't afford to buy a new one, my eight-year-old kindly reminds me I didn't buy the first one.

"Santa did," he says smugly.

Humph! "Well, actually..." I have to stop myself and get on with the dinner, muttering under my breath before breaking the parenting code.

They've asked if Harry Potter is real. Ha! I can do that one. "No, sweetheart, he's a fictional character in a book." And so are vampires... I must remember that when I get asked it again! Books are the answer. They're all fictional characters - of course, which they are - except The Tooth Fairy and Santa.