Happy Holidays to you all.
I am constantly amazed at the amount of Parental Disconnect during the holiday season.
All the live long year, parents scare the hell out of their children by telling the story of--insert scary music here--The Friendly Stranger.
Around roll the holidays, and these same parents have no problem turning their kid over to an elf--all dressed in glorious green--who promptly plops the squirming mass of cheer on the lap of a gigantic bearded man dressed in fur-trimmed crimson.
The kid bellows out a whoop worthy of yelling Fire! in a crowded movie theater and all the parents laugh, looking at each other in that knowing way, isn't that cute?
Photographs document the onset of early childhood post-traumatic stress disorder and off the lap the kids is swept--sobbing with the holiday spirit--safe, sound back in the arms of the waiting parent, who is ever conscious of the child-stealing riff-raff that hangs out in the mall.
Wow.
