We dont do Santa. At 3 and 4, my kid would tell his friends Santa isnt real, and they all told him he was wrong. Now at 5, he understands different people believe different things and knows not to say anything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy are not lies. They are lovely myths that bring a great deal of joy and wonder to children. Every parent has a right to tell their children about all of them. Santa brings me a lovely gift every year. Too bad you're such a bitch or maybe santa would care enough about you to leave you a surprise under the tree or in toe of your stocking!

Watching a 10 year old write a letter to Santa isn’t cute, it’s a very sad results of parents forcing a young mind into a state of deluded thinking to support their own escapism fantasies. If you want wonder, watch a sunset, don’t force feed your child a commercially driven fallacy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

OP here. Although I had really hoped it wouldn't devolve into this sort of discussion, I 100% agree. But I also want to be sensitive to others to the extent I can without compromising my own values. At a minimum it's a good lesson for my kid and the right thing to do.

Values!?! JFC. get over yourself, OP.

My own values = not telling my kids there's a Santa Claus when i know there isn't. You may not agree, but certainly you can see that's a legit opinion?

Meh. My kids say, “Is Donald trump mean?” I say “some people think that.” etc

Adults know things that kids do not. That’s how the world works. I think depriving your kids of Santa magic for some ridiculous false bravado is depressing. No one was ever harmed - or their relationship harmed - by encouraging Santa. It just wasn’t.

Anonymous wrote:We don’t do Santa either. The kids know who he is from stories and movies but we have never told them Santa brings you presents. When people ask “what is Santa bringing you?” They stare blankly.

Sucks for them.

We don’t do Santa either. The kids know who he is from stories and movies but we have never told them Santa brings you presents. When people ask “what is Santa bringing you?” They stare blankly.

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy are not lies. They are lovely myths that bring a great deal of joy and wonder to children. Every parent has a right to tell their children about all of them. Santa brings me a lovely gift every year. Too bad you're such a bitch or maybe santa would care enough about you to leave you a surprise under the tree or in toe of your stocking!

Anonymous wrote:I told my kids they would never want to be responsible for another kid finding out Santa isn't real because it will feel really terrible to do that. I told them a story from my own childhood (a true story) about ruining it for another kid and how I felt like an a-hole after.

I also told them the literal, physical Santa isn't real, but the idea of Santa is very real. We are all Santa.

Basically you just tell them not to be jerks and ruin it for other kids and hope for the best. It's a good life lesson. You don't need to share all the things you know all the time, now do you?

OP here. Thanks, this works for me.

I agree with other posters; I don’t need your kid to pretend for my kids’ sakes. When my kids fervently believed in Santa, they thought the other kids were lying about his not being real. I didn’t say one way or the other whether he was real. When dd asked why kids would say he wasn’t real, I just asked her if she would believe he was real if there weren’t gifts from Santa under our tree on Christmas morning? She decided that that was why they didn’t believe. When she got older and suspected he wasn’t real and asked me outright, I admitted that we all are Santa, but there’s no fat man in a red suit, transporting gifts via a sleigh being pulled by flying reindeer. I told her that now it’s up to her to give the gift of Santa to others since she now knows.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

OP here. Although I had really hoped it wouldn't devolve into this sort of discussion, I 100% agree. But I also want to be sensitive to others to the extent I can without compromising my own values. At a minimum it's a good lesson for my kid and the right thing to do.

Values!?! JFC. get over yourself, OP.

My own values = not telling my kids there's a Santa Claus when i know there isn't. You may not agree, but certainly you can see that's a legit opinion?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is in kindergarten and lots of kids over the years have told him Santa isn’t real. He shrugs and chooses to believe.

I truly don’t care what your kid tells mine. My older sister told me that there was no Santa and I was fine. I was ready to give him up.

I agree with this and have seen it in my own kids.

If they want to believe, no one telling them Santa isn't real will deter them. If they already have doubts, it will start to unravel.

That's what I think/hope will be the case with my kindergartener. An older kid told my DD that disney princesses weren't real, but DD still believes that real princesses live at Disneyworld.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

OP here. Although I had really hoped it wouldn't devolve into this sort of discussion, I 100% agree. But I also want to be sensitive to others to the extent I can without compromising my own values. At a minimum it's a good lesson for my kid and the right thing to do.

Values!?! JFC. get over yourself, OP.

+1
It’s a fun holiday tradition for children. All these prissy parents trying to make it about some bigger moral conundrum are not doing themselves or their kids any favors.

Anonymous wrote:DS is in kindergarten and lots of kids over the years have told him Santa isn’t real. He shrugs and chooses to believe.

I truly don’t care what your kid tells mine. My older sister told me that there was no Santa and I was fine. I was ready to give him up.

I agree with this and have seen it in my own kids.

If they want to believe, no one telling them Santa isn't real will deter them. If they already have doubts, it will start to unravel.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

OP here. Although I had really hoped it wouldn't devolve into this sort of discussion, I 100% agree. But I also want to be sensitive to others to the extent I can without compromising my own values. At a minimum it's a good lesson for my kid and the right thing to do.

Just tell your kid the other parents really want to play pretend with their kids and they shouldn’t tell the other kids because it will upset their parents. Tell them the parents look forward to playing this pretend game all year long.

I think kids can understand looking forward to playing a game and not wanting someone else to mess it up.

I told my kids they would never want to be responsible for another kid finding out Santa isn't real because it will feel really terrible to do that. I told them a story from my own childhood (a true story) about ruining it for another kid and how I felt like an a-hole after.

I also told them the literal, physical Santa isn't real, but the idea of Santa is very real. We are all Santa.

Basically you just tell them not to be jerks and ruin it for other kids and hope for the best. It's a good life lesson. You don't need to share all the things you know all the time, now do you?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Patents blatantly perpetrate an active lie to their children and somehow, my eight year old is the bad guy if he fails bear the burden of YOUR lie to YOUR child. Give me a break.

OP here. Although I had really hoped it wouldn't devolve into this sort of discussion, I 100% agree. But I also want to be sensitive to others to the extent I can without compromising my own values. At a minimum it's a good lesson for my kid and the right thing to do.

Values!?! JFC. get over yourself, OP.