Age to tell kids the truth about Father Christmas?

[AdamM]

My lad is 8, and figured it out last year, aged 7.
Think my daughter was about the same age when she cracked it.
I never told them outright, I just helped them to ask the right questions and figure out it made no sense at all.
Both were initially a little upset, but when they realised they would still be getting presents without the fat red anti-burglar, they were fine.

I used Santa and the Tooth Fairy to help develop their critical thinking skills, then have them apply it to religions too.
works a treat.
Two happy little atheist

If you could just flick a switch and suddenly believe there was a God and a Heaven, and that when you die you would go there to spend all eternity with your loved ones, living in peace and being happy, would you flick it?

absolutely not.
why would I want to?

Don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist too, but I'd click it.

I think the question is, why wouldn't you want to?

Because I care if what I believe is true or not.
Flicking this switch to make me believe something that has no good evidence to back it up is a horrible thought to me.

Besides, eternity is a bloody long time.
Would you really want to experience living FOREVER?
A theme that comes up very often in films or tv shows with a supernatural theme is that living for never is used as a curse or a punishment. That seems right to me.

As i say,  maybe a diversion like this deserves it's own thread.

[RED-DOG]

My lad is 8, and figured it out last year, aged 7.
Think my daughter was about the same age when she cracked it.
I never told them outright, I just helped them to ask the right questions and figure out it made no sense at all.
Both were initially a little upset, but when they realised they would still be getting presents without the fat red anti-burglar, they were fine.

I used Santa and the Tooth Fairy to help develop their critical thinking skills, then have them apply it to religions too.
works a treat.
Two happy little atheist

If you could just flick a switch and suddenly believe there was a God and a Heaven, and that when you die you would go there to spend all eternity with your loved ones, living in peace and being happy, would you flick it?

absolutely not.
why would I want to?

Don't get me wrong, I'm an atheist too, but I'd click it.

I think the question is, why wouldn't you want to?

Because I care if what I believe is true or not.
Flicking this switch to make me believe something that has no good evidence to back it up is a horrible thought to me.

Besides, eternity is a bloody long time.
Would you really want to experience living FOREVER?
A theme that comes up very often in films or tv shows with a supernatural theme is that living for never is used as a curse or a punishment. That seems right to me.

As i say,  maybe a diversion like this deserves it's own thread.

If you flicked the switch, it would be true as far as you're concerned.

Living for ever with your loved ones in a place where everyone is happy and no one ages.... What's not to like?

[AdamM]

It wouldn't be true, just because I believed it.
It would still be a fantasy, I'd just be tricked into believing it was reality.
 
Doing or experiencing anything for all eternity would be an absolute drag.
We're finite, and that's as it should be.
When talking to my 8
Year old about death recently, I asked
Him how he felt 200 years ago about not being alive yet?
Because that's precisely how you'll fell in 200 years about being dead.

Your time here is short. Fill every day with something worth while.
When we eat together every evening, I don't ask the kids what they did at school today, I ask them what they LEARNED today.
What do they know today that they didn't known the day before.

I lead by example and try and read a wiki article or some current affairs at lunchtime.
Days where I'm too busy at work with the routine stuff feel like real wastes.

Much better to make full use of the time we are alive that fantasise about how we would like post-death to be.

[RED-DOG]

It wouldn't be true, just because I believed it.
It would still be a fantasy, I'd just be tricked into believing it was reality.
 
Doing or experiencing anything for all eternity would be an absolute drag.
We're finite, and that's as it should be.
When talking to my 8
Year old about death recently, I asked
Him how he felt 200 years ago about not being alive yet?
Because that's precisely how you'll fell in 200 years about being dead.

Your time here is short. Fill every day with something worth while.
When we eat together every evening, I don't ask the kids what they did at school today, I ask them what they LEARNED today.
What do they know today that they didn't known the day before.

I lead by example and try and read a wiki article or some current affairs at lunchtime.
Days where I'm too busy at work with the routine stuff feel like real wastes.

Much better to make full use of the time we are alive that fantasise about how we would like post-death to be.

You're assuming that if you flicked the switch, you still wouldn't truly believe.

What if someone flicked it for you?

[AdamM]

No, I'm saying if the switch was flicked, by me or whoever else, and I truly believed it, that wouldn't make it true.

Now, pre-switch-flicked, I hate the idea of a switch being flicked that made me blind to truth and made me believe a fantasy was real.

[leethefish]

[vegaslover]

Tbh honest I'm fed up with it!!

Every year I spend a fortune on presents for the kids and that big, fat ,hairy fucker takes all the credit. I fucking hate my Mrs sometimes!!

Can defo relate to this.

Took my son to the cinema today and as we were early we went in a couple of shops. He pointed at several things and proudly stated 'i'm getting that for christmas and that and that'.
When I asked why he thinks that he states that they were all items on his letter to santa so he is defo getting them!!

He has just turned 7 so if he doesn't figure it out by next year he will be getting told a few facts

[Nilawina]

My 10yr old daughter posted her letter today.

Simply addressed Santa Clause, North Pole.

Apparently a stamp wasn't required!

[vegaslover]

My son has just turned 8 and still believes. Really thought he would have found out by now as he moved up to junior school in September.

Does know the tooth fairy isn't real, as one of his classmates caught his dad taking the tooth from under his pillow and putting money there!!

The old line of 'why dont you get me anything for xmas like santa does' wears thin quickly