Tell my 4 year old the truth about santa or not?
Answer:
Personally i dont think you should. Let him have the fun of believing in Santa. I'm only 10 and your probably looking for a more mature answer but my advice is wait a little while like till hes 6 or 7 and then you can consider telling him. my mom told me when i was about 6 and even i dont really believe in him its fun to play along. good luck and happy holidays to you and your son and youll know when the time comes to tell him.
I think that 4 is too young for a child to mot believe in Santa. I say take it in stride when he does find out. Santa is a great childrens legend/story/character, and every child should believe as long as they can.
dont ruin his spirit its not really lying let him figure it out on his own
Let him continue to believe in Santa. When he starts to question it then come clean. Don't look at it as a lie. Look at it as upholding a tradition. I had to come clean with my daughter when she was 7 and it was hard. I felt like she was growing up and not a little girl anymore. She didn't think that we had been lying to her and wasn't mad or betrayed or anything like that. Now she helps us play Santa for our son.
i dont think you should, wait cause xmas is really not the same when kids get older and realise ther is no snaty... wel when they young and they think they been good and that santy came , the happiness on their face is unreal... wait a while. you'll be sorry otherwise... you be long enough having a boring xmas without any excitment so make the most if what time you have now before he gets older
4 years old is way to young to break the truth to him. Not only that, he might go and ruin it for other kids at school. Let him believe, he is only a child. My 7 year old daughter still believes and same with my 3/12 year old. The are only kids for so long and time just flys. Let them be Innocent for as long as possible, he has his whole life ahead of him to be grown up. There is nothing wrong with child-hood fantasies! And you are not lying to him. Santa is the spirit of christmas. And at this time of year santa is everywhere, in each of us every time we give. Let him enjoy the idea of santa, it will make xmas magical for him for the next couple of years to come. When he comes to you and questions you about it in a few years, then come clean, until then let him believe!!
i told my kids a few years ago that santa wasnt real. But, they must've forgotton.they are 51/2 and 7 now
so, if you decide to tell your 4 yr old that santa isnt real, i dont think he would even understand what you were talking about. So, maybe you should wait until he asks you if Santa is real, then break it to him. That way, you never would have really lied to him.
just a suggestion.. good luck
I think that Santa is magical to children and they should be able to believe in him until they are old enough to figure it out, usually 7 or 8. I don't know anyone that resents their parents for letting them believe in Santa Clause.
I don't think that any child has ever questioned their parents on why they were told there is a Santa when there is not.
If you are so concerned with lying ot your child then why would you have told your child in the first place that there was.
I say allow your child to believe until they figure it out on their own. Same goes with the tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny.
When your child does figure it out the only question you will probably get is "mommy is there a Santa Claus?" . If that question comes up ask your child what they think and go from there.
well...you are the parent and you need to decide what is right for you child and family. Maybe the actual person santa claus is not real ..does not fly on a sleigh with magic reindeer...but the idea behind him is real...the spirit of christmas is real...If your child attends preschool it may be hard to tell him the truth behin the santa legend since usually all the kids are happy to tell you that his very much real. I don't think your child would be mad at your later for going along with the belief in santa clause.it just puts a face and picture on christmas spirit...and as i look at my 3 year old sooooooo excited for santa..i wouldn't wanna take that joy from her...let her imagination play for now since there isn't much to believe in when you are an adult
Well yuo can wait for about 2-4 more years or just ruin the kids spirt an beliving in christmas but its the right thing to do cause he will find out later from someone else then he'll or she'll never trust you again in the futre thank you very much lindsey owens please e mail me back at liziscvool@yzhoo.com i had to tell my kid but she still belives! :) Merry Christmas from Santas Helper
Wow at four you're already ruining the whole Santa thing huh? I'd wait. My son is 8 and still believes, I'll let him believe until he's 100 if he wants to. I'm sure he has an idea but why not let it go? Childhood passes us by so fast it's a real shame to ruin this already. I understand the problem, you don't want to lie. I get that but it's a shame to not see your child light up when he/she sees Santa at the store or waiting for him to visit. I say let the child keep believing. You don't even have to lie, you just say that it's all in the Christmas spirit.
Four years old is too young! I figured it out by the third/fourth grade--you're kid must be smart. Let him believe a little while longer. You know your kid best. It wasn't a big deal for me, but I know some kids react with that: Why did you lie to me? etc, etc. so I see why you're concerned--but he's four, so you don't have to worry about it just yet!
My daughter, now 8, has known the truth about Santa since she was about 3 or 4. Personally, I think Santa's a fun idea, but I work hard to be able to afford gifts, vacations, etc. for my daughter on Christmas and I don't think it's fair to me for some fictional character to take the credit for all that. I explained to my daughter, that Santa is not just one person, but instead, is everyone who loves her and shares gifts with her every year. The Santa we see is just an idea to represent the spirit of the giving. HOWEVER, my daughter also understands that not all children have been told this and she does not "enlighten" other children - classmates, neighbors, etc. By her personal choice, each of her thank you cards gets addressed to "Santa Auntie," "Santa Grandma," etc. in the spirit of things!
Santa, the person, is not a reality, but everything Santa stands for should be - joy, kindness, and a giving spirit. Santa is a character who helps Christmas come alive for some families, so I would talk about him with your son in that fashion. Just remember that, at age 4, sometimes kids have trouble separating fantasy from reality. To them, Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer, and Santa are ALL very real. I think as long as you aren't manipulating the image of Santa ("be good - Santa is watching"), you're not doing anything wrong. You can support the fantasy without lying. It's a game of make-believe... you wouldn't stop your son from pretending to be a doctor or a race car driver, would you?
It's (obviously) your choice to make. Just try not to let those Logical Facts get in the way of celebrating the spirit of the holiday, which is what Santa is really all about.
With my 8 year old... I think around age 4 we started saying Santa is just a character...just like Big Bird on Sesame Street, just like the puppets in your toychest...etc... eventually.she just accepted it..and now just goes on with life!! She's fine... she still jokes... still wants to take pics with him...but she knows it's a man in a suit...something for the holidays..just like the Ronald McDonald Clown... ha ha!
mine is almost 7 and she still thinks there is Santa. When I was a kid my sister told me when I was a kindergartner (5) and I was bummed out about it - I wish she hadn't, it makes Christmas less magical. or well, not magical.
I say hold off and enjoy the fun.
my daughter is 4 and we have never pushed the idea on her that there is a santa but because of hearing about santa everywhere around this time she just now believes he's real. we haven't told her that santa isn't real just because she is just so young and has a big imagination. little ones at that age believe in a lot of things like imaginary friends and the easter bunny. my daughter has actually caught my husband and i talking about how santa wasn't real and how we dealt with it when we found out as children and she didn't care what we said because to her he is lol. sometimes kids don't need to be told they just grow out of it. let him be a kid and let his imagination run wild because he will get to an age where all that will wear off and you will wish that he was still thinking like that. don't get me wrong i totally know how you feel about the whole lying issue and my husband and i had a hard time with it too but the whole santa deal is hard to avoid at this age and i think it would hurt the child's feelings now being so young then it would later on when they are older and less sensitive to the subject because when they are 8,9,10 they tend to not care where they get the presents from anymore lol just as long as they have some under that tree. good luck!
Christmas is for children.. don't rob your kid of that innocence. Allowing the child to believe is not predicating a lie... but allowing the kid to dream, wish and hope. As long as you don't commericalize the holiday, but rather get him a couple nice gifts he really wanted... he'd treasure those memories a lot more if he thought that by staying "good all year" means he'll get a little reward under the tree. Instead, he could just say... "o, this is the holiday where mom and dad get me a gift, wrap it and put it under the tree. It would have less meaning.
Allowing your child to experience believing in Santa should also give you a sense of joy by allowing you to feel like a kid again... and to bring up the memories you have of the holdiay from when you were a young child.
Santa still comes to my parents house, yet all us "kids" are 30+. And to see my nephew (4 1/2 yrs) enjoy this year so much, and get so excited about santa .. the decorations... the lights on the tree - I could NEVER rob that from him.
Santa is the spirit of Christmas giving. Most kids figure it out long before they stop openly "believing" but that's because they want there to be a real Santa. Let him have his fantasy. He's a kid, after all.
no dont tell him thats the fun in christmas
i mean whats he have to look forward to at christmas time
You will lose all the magic that the thought of Santa brings to your child. I'd wait till they at least start school and maybe come home and ask about it. Why spoil all the pleasure
i value truth as well, but im almost 30 years old and i still believe, my daughter is almost 7 and she does as well, but she also knows that it isnt all about a jolly elf in a big red suit & reindeers, but about the birth of jesus, the joy of giving, family...but at 4, let it be fun for him, because at his age, he wouldnt really understand if fully, so i hope that helps and you have a wonderful and merry christmas! god bless
oh no. no no no no no no no no no no
4!
no no no do not tell him right now especially at his age he will be so sad kids should find out when they want to like when i found out when i was 10 but anyway if you would tell him now it wouldn't b so fun because when you believe in santa it seems so fun and it makes you smile so don't tell him at such a young age it might break his heart ( hope you'll have a good x-mas ) o and thanks for the 2 points
No, i don't think she's ready
Its the IDEA of Santa that is important! Its what Santa represents that is valuable.
I'm all for not lien to your children, so when my daughter at 6 1/2 asked me about Santa I told her the truth. Other kids at school had ruined it for her already so there was no point in maintaining the lie. That was a true disappointment.
Childhood is magical. I think that anything we can do to hold that magic is a treasure.
Life will no doubt hold many disappointments; as well as Joys. Why not let them have the joy of believing in Santa? Why do you deduce Santa to a lie? To me its majic...and I still believe.
I'm curious...when your son wants to know where babies come from what do you say?
I think you should let him keep believing in Santa---he'll find out on his own soon enough, and four is still young enough to believe in Santa. I think when kids find out Santa isn't real, then some of the magic is gone--part of growing up, I guess...Let him continue to believe. It's not really lying--it's more of a fun story that you tell until he's old enough to figure things out on his own.
Let the Magic live in your child while he still has it. Soon that Magic will fade and then you will wonder where it all went. Also technically there once was a "Santa" and the tradition has been passed down from generation to generation.
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