"Mommy is XXXX real" how do you answer the question

[fromscratchmom]

I am on the tell the truth side of this issue. I don't ever blurt it out and act like a jerk, where my kids feelings are involved, but I never lie to them. And I can't even imagine anyone making their child feel bad for being smart or realistic. If one of my older ones was making one of the younger ones upset, I'd talk to them each seperately so that I could help the younger one cope and then properly chastise the older one for not being any kinder about it or just to explain if there was no malice involved in what had looked like meaness. In fact, I'm always surprised at all the parents who see no problem with the dishonesty but are aghast that I am truthful with my kids, claiming that I ought to want to preserve their childhood or their faith or their innocence. I tell ya', it is hard for me to understand how dishonesty is really going to help them in the long run or even help them just enough in the short term to outweigh the damage done to the future. And so far, my kids, ages 6, 8 and 15 have not shown any signs of being too sophisticated, too mature, too cynical or anything else that the aghast parents have been predicting. They are fun, happy, well adjusted kids that love life and trust me to ask me anything. Faith is a wonderful thing to preserve but the things I encourage them to have faith in are the things that I have faith in, not the things that I see as fun fantasies. We always have a good time with the fantasy side of life, all the while acknowleging that it is fantasy and that there is value in fiction.