Aibu - secondary and Santa

[obviouslymarvellous]

So yesterday my ds (year 7) told me that his RE teacher had told them that Santa was made up and nonsense. Now I'm not being a snowflake or anything and we had already told him that Santa only comes to younger children and he himself would be being Santa this year for his younger sisters, so I'm a little bit peeved that a teacher has spoiled it all. Ds said a few girls were crying in the class. I just don't think it's a teachers responsibility to tell children about Santa it's a parental job but maybe AIBU?

This cannot be real? High school aged kids crying about Santa?!?
Tbf an RE teacher has a cheek when he’ll be telling them God made the earth in 7 days 🙄🙄

In 2019 when most kids have phones and can look it up .

Bookworm- there are plenty of atheist RE teachers out there. My GCSE RE teacher was very open about being a total atheist and she was brilliant. She was respectful about all of the religions we studied, and told us she had one catholic and one Hindu parent, but didn’t believe herself.

I teach secondary, and the only occasion where I have deliberately made sure I didn’t say anything about FC was whilst teaching a nurture SEN group in Year 10 “A Christmas Carol” by Dickens. We were discussing how the Ghost of Christmas Present is described to look a lot like FC. I didn’t say anything other than that, as there were bound to be a few in there who still believed.

Aside from that, I can’t think why on Earth I would need to temper my language to make sure I never said anything about mythical beings not being real. Why would I? They should know by 11 if NT.

is he pulling your leg OP? Do you do all presents from Santa and he is worried he will miss out ? Cause I’m sorry but no no no way does a year 7 believe .

I did this about santa and the tooth fairy to my parents. Why give up more presents and money? my mum was angry when she found out

Highschool, and believing in Santa? Is this for real?

I have a DD at high school who believes in Santa but she had severe learning difficulties but apart from SN I really don't get it.

I also don't understand why some parents like to keep up their children's belief in this kind of nonsense going as long as possible.

Do you mean he's 7 years old? Or year 7, so 11-12 years old?

Seriously OP? honestly? Y7?

You'd better start preparing him gently about elf on a shelf and the tooth fairy hadn't you, cos it's a big jump from fairy tales to reality. What are you telling him about puberty or are you waiting until the school lets him into those big secrets as well.

AIBU The teacher told my child about how babies are made, but we were waiting until his wedding day to tell him and now feel his life has been ruined and his future happiness compromised......

If a child has got to secondary and sincerely believes then the parents have gone wrong somewhere in afraid.

Of course, by y9-11 they will insist santa is real and replay the whole thing all over again from a festive fun point of view.

I agree Sabine. People on MN don't seem very good and understanding that religious studies is about learning ABOUT different views, not learning to believe in God.

My eldest has a disability which affects her maturity levels and she hadn't worked it out - so I broke it to her before she started secondary school. You know, so she didn't get mocked

Well.as it says Secondary I'm assuming year 7 Bouffalant

Oh dear my 10 year old ds still believes he will be 11 at Christmas. This is his last year at primary so I’m going to have to tell him before next Christmas. He knows some children don’t believe but he just thinks they are mistaken. I think I was about 10 or 11 before I stopped believing.

…. but a lot of my DC's friends "believe" - and they are in Y9! They even joke about what Father Christmas is going to bring them.

I don't think they do truly believe, but they aren't daft enough to do themselves out of extra Christmas presents by admitting it. And I can see that, a couple of years ago, a few of them genuinely did still believe in him. As long as they don't shout it from the rooftop I don't see the harm. But I bet the RE teacher had a shock!

If my kids hadn't worked out that Santa wasn't real by Y7 I would be seriously, seriously worried about their lack of critical thinking skills and gullibility. Would you expect the teacher to say that dragons and fairies are real too?

It would never cross a secondary teachers mind that a year 7 11/12 year old would still believe in santa.

I know what would have happened though. One little madam would have decided to cause some drama and before you know it hysteria would have broken our amongst the girl’s. It’s like it’s catching.

My Dd just started yr7 and there’s a few kids who still believe apparently. I would never let my kid start secondary school still believing in Santa. She said she worked it out at around 8yo.

She knows she has to keep up the pretence for her very naive 8yo brother and to keep the stage whispers and conspiratorial winks to an absolute minimum.

It’s the first year I’ve actually acknowledged she’s right though, and I’m looking forward to getting her involved

mnbvcxz098
😂😂

Year 7’s were crying when told Santa didn’t exist 🤔🤔🤔

Tbf an RE teacher has a cheek when he’ll be telling them God made the earth in 7 days

That’s not what they do

The guy who is promoting a big man in the sky with a big beard and omnipotent powers is saying Santa doesn't exist? Maybe he was going for irony!

In most secondary schools these days RE is taught as "these are things people belive" rather than "this is what's true" The teacher may be any religion or none

I cannot for the life of me work out why parents get so tied up in knots over this.

Surely precious few year 7s still believe in Father Christmas!! It shouldn't be such a revelation to parents, nor any issue at all. So what if a teacher did say it was a myth!? They are correct. It doesn't matter.

If my DDs had cried at this news when they were 11/12 then I would have been seriously concerned about them. I find it hard to believe that any of them (barring those with some special needs perhaps) actually did cry about it. How uncool.

I always pretend to believe in Santa (and the tooth fairy and Easter bunny) when dealing with year 7 and 8. The vast majority of them know I'm pretending, and join in with the pretence or even argue with me about it, telling me I need to buy the presents for my kids or they'll miss out if I rely on Santa to do it, lol. The odd few really sheltered kids do still believe, but if anybody is going to tell them the truth, it's not going to be me!!

My friend's daughter never worked it out. She was 18 when her mum realised she still genuinely believed. She has Asperger's, and they all assumed she had figured it out/been told by friends and was just pretending for her much younger siblings. She wasn't. She was distraught, mostly that she'd been lied to for so many years!!! She said she really would have preferred it if her parents had told her the truth at a much earlier age, but they just didn't realise that she still believed. Poor girl. Still, at least they told her before she had kids.

RE teachers teach what different religions believe. They don't teach any one religion as true. (Except maybe in a faith school.)

Mine is Year 3 and was asking questions about how it was all possible in Year 2. I think he's just playing along now so he gets the presents!

Youngest is 3 and will believe this year and hopefully next. I think you only get a couple of years until they start thinking "Hey now come on..."