Woman just announced in front of Dd that there isn't really a Father Christmas.

[hmmSleep]

Think I over-reacted.

I was queing in a shop with Dd (4yrs), the woman in front is talking to the woman behind the cash desk in a big booming voice, one of those voices you can't really ignore.

'...well I'm so fed up of being the one buying the presents and wrapping them but not getting any thanks that I just told the children there is no Santa and it's me that does it all!'

I ahem'd and nodded towards my daughter who was looking up at her with a slightly baffled expression, the silly woman then started going on, 'oh he only doesn't come to our house because I'm a bad Mummy, blah blah blah'. I told her to 'just stop talking' . I actually felt a bit tearful and am suprised I reacted so rudely. Thankfully the sales assistant was wonderful and told Dd that Father Christmas always goes to her house and she knew he was coming to ours too.

Tell me I wasn't too rude, I'm sure the poor woman wasn't meaning to spoil the magic for a 4 yr old, just a bit careless!

jinglesticks

Oh ffs if everyone went around with an imaginary friend especialy some fat man in a red suit and beard who gets paid off people to let thier kids sit on his knee and flies around the world in a sled pulled by errr flying raindeers and squeezes his 18 stone frame down a chimney Daaaamn no wonder the world is already a sad place.

Hotch a butcher , baker , postman are not fictitious your FC is. And you personally know this person in his red suit and white beard , if not then he IS a stranger.

Wammy - the FC that hotchristmasbunny takes her children to see is a real man - what she is saying is that her children are at as little risk from talking to him as they would be if they were talking to the butcher, baker or postman in her presence.

And I am interested to know what you would say to your children about FC - and that is relevant, I think. Given your opinions about FC, how are you going to deal with it with your children? Do you tell them all the other children are being lied to by their parents? And if so, do you advise them to tell their friends or to keep the secret?

I agree with kungfupanda - if we take all the magic and fantasy out of life, it will be a very sad place.

Wammy - children are very imaginative people - they make up all sorts of stories and fantasies - and I, for one, would not wither a child's imagination by insisting that everything they said had to be the literal truth.