(November 25, 2014 at 6:23 pm)Minimalist Wrote: It's an individual thing.
At whatever age the kid figures out there is no Santa Claus he/she should be told "guess what else?"
I didn't do it in such a pointed manner, but yeah, the "we adults let kids believe in Santa for their own pleasure" always has ripples.
My son was about five when he came to me with his first question about Jesus Christ. Seems his mom had a lover who was a devout Christian and trying to fill my son's head with the claptrap. I told him I don't believe in any god, and told him why: "There's no evidence."
That started a years-long conversation about how we learn which things are likely real and which aren't, and that's a good thing.
See, when Jake was born, his mom (at that time a Catholic) and I had agreed that we would neither push our belief or lack thereof on him, and that we were neither bound to lie about our own beliefs if he asked. When the playing field is leveled like that, children will always go with the rational explanations, because children are natural scientists. I was confident in my ability to raise him to think for himself and evaluate claims on their merits.
He's given backhanded compliments to that confidence of mine when he disagrees with me about even minor things; instead of yelling at me about how I "don't understand", he lays out his case in steps, and only then calls me stupid.
