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A moral dilemma

21st May 2007 by Helena 6 Comments  

“Mummy,”said Olivia yesterday. “Do you buy the presents that Father Christmas brings?”

This was too direct a question to ignore, or skirt around. What would you have done? She is seven years old. She has two younger siblings who passionately believe in Father Christmas. I remember believing in Father Christmas was one of the best things about being a child.

 “No,” I lied.

“Oh good,” she said. “And I know you wouldn’t lie to me, except for maybe about your age.” Eeeeek. One day I will have to tell her that I did lie, but I was at least crossing my fingers. And as for lying about my age, I quote Oscar Wilde in my defence: “One should never trust a woman who tells her real age, if she tells that, she’ll tell anything.”

This morning I had the written equivalent of a “you’re really very pretty” comment (see below Flirting Allowed blog) on my website. A fourteen-year-old New York-based poet wrote asking me to “keep writing forever”. So I am floating once more. Somehow it meant a lot more than being told I’m pretty. Could I finally be maturing? Let’s hope not.

The only thing depressing me is Madeleine. My husband keeps telling me to stop obsessing but somehow I just can’t. I was awake at 4am again worrying about her. I know it’s not helping anyone but at 4am I have no control over my brain. If it happens again tonight I will just get up and do some ironing; anything is better than thinking about what might have happened to her.

Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2007


Filed Under: Children, blog -->, writing Tagged With: dilemma, moral

6 thoughts on A moral dilemma

  • snusmormor says:
    21st May 2007 at 2:27 pm

    I have a feeling Olivia suspects……and that the truth might be best, otherwise she might not believe you about your age either!

  • Amber Lee says:
    21st May 2007 at 5:38 pm

    Like most young women, I like to think of how I’m going to handle certain situations when I have my own kids. I suspect I’ll teach my children about St. Nicholas and why we give presents to each other. But I know that’s not very imaginative and doesn’t work too well if you’re not into the church scene.

  • okcmermaid says:
    21st May 2007 at 9:14 pm

    I, too, am somewhat obsessed about Madeline. Every morning and every evening I check on-line for new information regarding the search. (Although the story has made the news in the US, updates are infrequent.) My little 2 year old resembles her to a degree, and I simply cannot imagine what I would do if something happened to her. It is so frustrating because someone, somewhere, has information concerning her whereabouts. They just need to tell. How can they continue to keep silent?

  • Claire says:
    22nd May 2007 at 12:19 am

    While driving in the car with me, my then 10 year old daughter got quite upset about something quite trivial that had happened at school that day.
    And, and…I bet there’s no tooth fairy either!” she shouted desperately trying to compound her misery.
    I concentrated on the traffic.
    “See I knew that and I bet there’s no Santa Claus either don’t dare answer that!” tumbled forth.
    With apologies to all the fairies who must surely have died at the bottom of the garden in want of a more stout defence, I told her there would always be a surprise under my Christmas tree for her as long as she believed in the magic of Santa.
    She’s now a worldly thirteen, almost fourteen, year old who looks forward to Christmas morning unknowns as she always did, talks Santa up big time for her little brother and has never, to the delight of my soft heart, felt the need for either of us to clarify our belief system more accurately.

  • sally crocker says:
    22nd May 2007 at 3:11 pm

    Hurrah for Oscar Wilde !!

  • Oscar Wilde says:
    7th July 2007 at 1:24 pm

    Another one from Oscar Wilde:

    “A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.”

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Helena Frith Powell was born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and Italian father, but grew up mainly in England. She is the author of eleven books, translated into several languages including Chinese and Russian. She wrote the French Mistress column The Sunday Times about life in France for several years. She is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, The Times, Daily Telegraph, Tatler Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar.

Helena has been the editor of four magazines, including M Magazine, a supplement for the Abu Dhabi-based National Newspaper and FIVE, a high-end fashion glossy, also published in Abu Dhabi. Helena was also editor-in-chief of 360 Life, a quarterly glossy magazine published with the Sports 360 Newspaper in Dubai, part of the Chalhoub Group.

Helena contributes regularly to UK-based newspapers and magazines and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. She is working on a thriller set in Sweden as well as a novel about the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Katherine Mansfield called Sense of an Echo.

In 2022 her short story The Japanese Gardener came second in the Fish Publishing Short Story Prize. One of her stories was also shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize. When she’s not writing, she works as a headhunter for the media and entertainment industry for the Sucherman Group. 

Helena, who was educated at Durham University, lives in the Languedoc region of France with her husband Rupert and their three children.

Bibliography

More France Please, we’re British; Gibson Square 2004

Two Lipsticks and a Lover 2005; Gibson Square (hardback)

All You Need to be Impossibly French; (US version of above) Penguin 2006

Two Lipsticks and a Lover; Arrow Books (paperback) 2007

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (hardback) 2006

Ciao Bella Gibson Square; (paperback) 2007

So Chic! (French version of Two Lipsticks) Leduc Editions 2008 (also translated into Chinese, Russian and Thai)

More, More France; Gibson Square 2009

To Hell in High Heels; Arrow Books 2009 (also translated into Polish)

The Viva Mayr Diet; Harper Collins 2009

Love in a Warm Climate; Gibson Square 2011

The Ex-Factor; Gibson Square 2013

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles; Gibson Square 2016

The Arnolfini Marriage; Amazon Kindle December 2016

Smart Women Don’t Get Wrinkles (paperback); Gibson Square spring 2018

The Longest Night; Gibson Square spring 2019

 

 

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