Help me come up with a reason my 6 year old can’t sell his ‘gold’ nugget

[GloriousTuga]

My 6 year old has a lump of fools gold he believes to be real gold. He’s desperate to sell it to make money. I’ve tried to dissuade him by talking about how gold goes up in value over time but no joy.

can anyone help me create a narrative as to why he shouldn’t sell it without bursting his bubble about the ‘real gold’? The pestering is too much!

He was 4 at the time and so we just went with it. It wasn’t talked about at all except occasionally ‘how cool I have a real gold nugget!’ but only in recent weeks he’s started asking about its value and wanting to sell it, but 2 years down the line I’m finding it hard to fess up!

I think online research and ‘discovering’ its iron pyrite is probably necessary, you’re all right.

Stop lying to him! He’ll never trust you if you lie about stupid shit all the time

Hahaha! I like the sound of these two. I agree with everyone else saying do some research with him.

Oh, stop it.

Just tell him the truth, like a normal person.

Not your northernness, no. You’re normal.

Just tell him its not real gold and therefore is worth £1

Tell him that the mine people make it more exciting by planting nuggets for people to find, but they're not real gold - they are another really cool metal called iron pyrites.

Why are you letting your kid get upset over a lie? Just tell him the truth and get it over with!

You are going to have to pass yourself off as a bit of a “fool” and pretend to have only just found out that the nugget isn’t real gold, and show your kids the info on internet etc.
If you say you knew all along then they would probably be (rightly) upset.

Stop what?

I broke the news and bought it off him for £10. He was delighted with this outcome so clearly I was overthinking!

Well done!

Clever boys!! They will go far.

Genius move!

If only the mine could understand the problem with not being honest too.

I'd be really cross if my child had been lied to!

Oh yes, that would be the right way to do it.

Time to tell the truth.

You are being ridiculous in letting this idea persist.

Great outcome @GloriousTuga (although he saw you coming.. £10 for a fake nugget. He'll go far 😂)

Google fools gold discovery and explain it to him. What it is and how it fooled many in the original Gold Rush days. Don’t let him keep believing it’s solid gold, we had this when we were kids his age a long time ago but we knew it wasn’t real gold but a different mineral formation and interesting in its own right

This. Personally I wouldn't perpetuate a lie. Even at that young age he may feel shame or foolish about having been taken in. It's a shame they weren't just honest about what it was in the first place. Perhaps you could pretend you've done an Internet search or called the mine and asked them about it and they told you it could only be iron pyrite. Perhaps look up how iron pyrite is formed or a bit of history of miners being fooled and make it an exciting learning thing.

Show him this.

wonderopolis.org/wonder/What-Is-Fool%E2%80%99s-Gold

No. We're like that down here too.😀

Have you ever taken your child to Santa's Grotto, or had the Elf on a Shelf, theTooth Fairy or Easter Bunny visit? Never taken them to see Peter Pan and encouraged them to shout out "I do believe in fairies!" to save Tinkerbell?

Come on, this is MN where half the posters think children will scarred for life because their parents let them believe in Santa Claus!

I'm glad it all worked out in the end OP