a website to help parents talk with their children about potentially sensitive topics:
Birth, Death, and Fantastical Beings
What could I discuss with my child?
Parents normally don't avoid
Young Children's questions but
elaborate and give additional information.
The parental role falls under supporting children’s beliefs by giving simple explanations and allowing children to use their imagination to form reasons of their own.
In a study looking at belief in Santa Claus,
-
54% of children discovered the truth on their own.
-
33% of children had their parents tell them.
-
13% of children figured it out as a mixture of both.
Older children (ages 5 to 7) tend to ask questions about aspects that violate real-world constraints
-
“How does Santa fit down the chimney?”
-
"How does the Tooth Fairy visit all the houses every night?"
Younger children (ages 2 to 4) tend to ask more factual questions than older children.
-
"Is Santa happy all the time?"
-
"Where does the Easter Bunny live?"
Parents sometimes express uncertainty toward
older children’s questions due to
Their more sophisticated understanding and skeptical view toward parental answers.
Most of the time, parents don't even have to tell their kids that fantastical beings aren't real
Check out this interview, which talks about different experts opinions on children believing or denying the myth of Santa Claus: "The Truth About Kids and Santa"
Overall, children had a more positive reaction to the discovery than their parents, who viewed it as a sign of maturity but also a loss of “magic” from the holidays.