At what age do you think you would tell your kids the truth about things like Easter bunny, Santa, tooth fairy, etc?
I remember learning when I was maybe 7 and I was so sad! DH says as long as LO keeps believing, so we are thinking we will play it by ear?
squash / 13208 posts
We're playing it by ear
Last year at age 7 DS said there was no way Santa was real - how could he get around to those houses all in 1 night??
He asked me flat out if he was real
I panicked and said "what do you think?"
He said "I think he's a little real"
I said 'me too"
And that was that.
He has started talking about it again this year but hasn't asked me directly -
persimmon / 1445 posts
I figured it out early (like 4 or 5) because I asked my mom if poor kids got a lot of presents and she said no... So I guess I realized Santa wouldn't give more to certain kids and he therefore couldn't be real. My mom just made me swear not to tell my younger siblings or school friends. I kept it to myself and it didn't really ruin anything but for me (but we were/ are a very Christian family so the holidays weren't only about Santa for me).
I'll do the same and tell my kids when they ask me or figure it out themselves.
honeydew / 7622 posts
I'm not planning on pushing these concepts on her. I will let her lead the way.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
Never. My parents never told us they weren't real. It was all a very big secret that they weren't real. We still get gifts from Santa...
@Mamaof2: that's cute - a little real.
pomegranate / 3872 posts
My parents also never said they weren't real. My mom always said kids who don't believe might not get presents haha. I definitely knew very early but played along. I think you have to go by your kid. If lo was too old and in danger of being teased or devastated I'd find a way to lead her to the truth.
pomegranate / 3973 posts
I would definitely prefer they figure it out on their own, but if they haven't by 8-ish I think I'd tell? I had a 4th grade teacher tell the whole class Santa wasn't real (I had figured it out by then), but also had some coworkers who didn't know till jr. high.
cantaloupe / 6630 posts
I think I will let them lead the way. Unless they were super old and getting teased at school. My three year old already asks if they are real.
grapefruit / 4418 posts
We will let them lead the way. I'm not even introducing the concept of it to her. I'll wait and see what she comes up with on her own. I definitely won't lie if she asks.
grapefruit / 4085 posts
She already questions the "realness" of other characters and seems to know when things are pretend, so if she questions Santa and thinks of it as more of a fun pretend concept, that's fine with me.
pomelo / 5866 posts
We didn't teach her that they were real. More of like a fun character thing.
pineapple / 12566 posts
We didn't tell them they were real, but my older LO is influenced by other kids and thinks they are real. He actually asked me yesterday if Santa was real and I told him that he's not, he's just a character. We discussed the same thing last year. He didn't agree with me though. 
nectarine / 2085 posts
We are also in the camp of not really doing Santa, but I think there's a good argument for leaving the issue a little open (and we do this on St. Nicholas Day when shoes and a chocolate "from" the saint arrive). I like G.K. Chesterton's take:
"Then I only wondered who put the toys in the stocking; now I wonder who put the stocking by the bed, and the bed in the room, and the room in the house, and the house on the planet, and the great planet in the void. Once I only thanked Santa Claus for a few dolls and crackers, now I thank him for stars and street faces and wine and the great sea. Once I thought it delightful and astonishing to find a present so big that it only went halfway into the stocking. Now I am delighted and astonished every morning to find a present so big that it takes two stockings to hold it, and then leaves a great deal outside; it is the large and preposterous present of myself, as to the origin of which I can afford no suggestion except that Santa Claus gave it to me in a fit of peculiarly fantastic goodwill."
Here's the whole thing, it's worth a read: http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/21st-december-1974/9/my-experience-of-santa-claus
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