I've mentioned before on this blog that I think this past Christmas was my 6 year old's last year of believing that Santa Claus is real. I'm not even sure she really believed Santa Claus was real this past Christmas. She's a very practical child, taking after her Daddy. She's very good at analyzing the evidence available to her and arriving at a conclusion based on that evidence. About 2 weeks after Christmas, while I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch, she comes up to my wife and asks, "Mommy, are fairies real?"
My wife and I have had previous discussions preparing ourselves for questions such as this. Telling your kids that Santa is real is a method of deceiving your kids, whether you think it's okay or not. Had I done things over, I may or may not have led my daughter to believe in Santa. I'm not sure. But both my wife and I decided that once our daughter starts asking questions, we're not going to lie to her.
So when the "are fairies real" question popped up, we first asked our 6 year old, "Well, what do you think?" Our daughter says "No, they're make believe. They're not real." We followed that up with a few "why do you think that" questions and then confirmed with her that fairies are not real. Our daughter didn't specifically ask about Santa, but given that she's already come to her own conclusion that fairies aren't real, it's only one more step to come to the conclusion that Santa isn't real.
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