I Killed the Easter Bunny...

*ugh* Where do I start...............??

So, the other day, my youngest, Ashley, starts going on about the Tooth Fairy, Santa & the Easter Bunny again. All of my kids have had probably more than their fair share of 'goodies' from each of these mystical beings, as many know, I went a little overboard starting various traditions in our house for the children, and it snowballed.

Anyway, keeping with the subject at hand, Ashley is the only one left that still believes in these 'characters', and she has begun to take it to a level I'm not comfortable with. The idea that if Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy are real, well then all faeries must be real, and if ALL faeries are real, then mermaids must be real, too, and if mermaids are real then,... well, you get the idea.

So, I decided to feel her out on whether she might be ready to have the talk,... no not that talk, the 'your world as you know it is a fantasy' talk. So we chatted a bit, and I decided to make my first attempt with the Easter Bunny, as he seemed he might be a little easier to convince as a fallacy. "You really think there's a 6 foot tall bunny that hops around from place to place and nobody ever catches him?", I ask... "Sure, maybe he can change shape like Santa when he shlurps down skinny chimneys like jell-o", says she (this she got from the SantClaus movie). Oh, boy. So, I test the waters with, "Well, how would you feel if the Easter Bunny was really someone?,... What would you think about that? How would you feel?"....... *SILENCE* Then, she asks me if she can go get a piece of paper. She does, and then a few minutes later comes back with this...........

Three pictures. The first being the Tooth Fairy and Ashley and they're both smiling. There's a box, and she says "Tooth Fairy is real,.. "check!". Next picture. This one is of Santa and Ashley, and again, they are both smiling. Another box, and another response of, "Santa is real,... "check!".

And now for the final picture. The final picture portrays the Easter Bunny and Ashley, only there are no smiles, they're both sobbing,... not just crying mind you, but SOBBING. The Easter Bunny is encircled repeatedly and has a big "X" over top of him, the checkbox is scribbled out, and there, next to all of this, is a picture of me,... it's a picture depicting 'Mom' with scissors and some other items I couldn't decipher so Ashley in a very snub voice says, "You have scissors,.. you cut off his whiskers to make a guitar, and you cut off his tail to make a hat. YOU KILLED THE EASTER BUNNY. That's how I feel".

??????????????????!!!!!!! What the heck do you say to that??!

My jaw was on the floor. Guess you can figure out that I left everything else alone,... I didn't even tell her he doesn't exist, I just asked her how she would feel if he was really someone else,......... I can only imagine if I attempted to talk to her about Santa, the Tooth Fairy, mermaids, or the like right now,........ she'd probably decide I'm a freakin' serial killer! LOL

I didn't remotely have this trouble with my older two, but they weren't as 'set' on these things as she is, and so I held off talking to them until they were a couple of years older and really began questioning things on their own. So, I guess I'm going to keep waiting with her,......... no way I'm going to end up on "Ashley's Most Wanted" as the "Fantasy Slasher". Yikes!

Any thoughts??