We all want our kids to believe in magic — heck, all I really wanted was to be Sabrina the Teenage Witch when I was a kid. But there’s a difference between wanting your kids to believe in the impossible and indulging them in stories that will ultimately betray their trust. That is probably not something one dad considered before he went looking for help on Reddit and shared that he and his wife have convinced their 7-year-old daughter that she’s a witch in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. At worst, he figured, his daughter will grow up and be a little disappointed when her letter to Hogwarts never comes — but commenters online thought his actions were more damaging than good.
The dad wrote in to the r/HarryPotter forum, looking for new ways to make his daughter believe that she was a witch.
In a post that has since been deleted, the Original Poster (OP) explained that they told his daughter that she was a witch “and that the Wizarding World is real” when they first started reading the book a few years ago.
Now she's almost 8 years old, she has more and more questions.
I mean, wouldn’t you be wondering a thing or two if you thought that your parents were going to send you to a wizard boarding school instead of sixth grade? Not to mention dementors — we would definitely want to know more about dementors.
“We’ve kept building the illusion with more details about our family genealogy and its connection to book characters, stories about times we used magic (and the life and moral lessons we learned about it),” the dad continued.
“She has processed many difficult subjects like racism, climate change and even the Coronavirus through this lens.”
He knows that he's setting his daughter up for a world of hurt when they have to finally tell her the truth.
But they feel like they are “adding magic” to her childhood “and giving her motivation to reach her full (magical) potential (since she needs to study hard to be accepted to Hogwarts).”
He even told his daughter's teachers their plan.
According to him, the teachers think it’s “more awesome and creative than damaging.”
He argued that at worst it’s almost like he’s raising his daughter to believe that “traditional religious stories are true and that when the truth hits it will teach her to ask critical questions and not accept everything she hears or reads at face value.”
He turned to the internet for new ways to continue making the Wizarding World real to his daughter.
He wanted to “inject” more “Harry Potter magic” into their everyday lives using technology, crafts, and “adding more details to the fanfic that is our lives,” he wrote.
People in the comments could not believe that the OP didn't realize how harmful this was.
“You admitted that you’re aware you’re GASLIGHTING her and that there’s a huge possibility SHE WILL DEVELOP TRUST ISSUES,” one person exclaimed. “What the bloody h— is wrong with you? Is this concept of a magical childhood really worth severing your daughter’s trust in you?”
“Child abuse,” someone else agreed. “Anyone who knows this person (or knows how to find out) report them to the authorities immediately. Not fit to be parents. It’s a book, you clown.”
“That is horrific, you are a TERRIBLE parent, and I hope no one helps you,” someone else added. “This is a soul crushing lie.”
When I was growing up I also desperately wanted Harry Potter to be real — who didn’t? But knowing that the books were fiction and dealing with the disappointment of learning that the world is not a magical place is far less damaging than failing to develop a foundational level of trust with my parents.
Sure, the OP’s daughter might not grow up and resent him after she learns the truth, but in effort to get her to believe in magic, he’s risking his daughter losing her faith in him.
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