To wonder if my 6 year old thinks in a strange way

[Andsoitgoeshey]

Dd turned 6 not long ago.

Last year when she was 5, I started the elves, she immediately asked if I did the elves and kept going on about the letter from the elves being from me.
This year, she asked a couple of weeks ago if it was us that really bought the presents, not santa, she hasn’t heard anything at school etc or would have said, this is just the way she thinks.
We were watching Home alone the other day and I made a joke saying imagine being home on your own at aged 8 having to look after yourself and the fun you could have. She said he wasn’t alone because of the person behind the camera filming him…!
I just never thought this way as a child, I became really absorbed in films, not even realising they weren’t real and believed in Father Christmas and that magical world.
She’s very imaginative and loves role play and pretending to be different characters.

Is this normal for a 6 year old? I find it quite sad

@ManhattanPopcorn I have such fond memories of all the magical aspects of childhood, life when you get older is very different without all of that.

Is your son NT? Out of interest?

Are there other signs? This reminds me of my ND son alot. But this alone isn't enough. Do you see other things that feel different.

Possibly but there would need to be a lot of other signs. My son isn't autistic (we did query it and it was ruled out). He's just wicked smart.

You’re sad she doesn’t relate to fantasy things/santa in the way you remember from your own childhood, but she seems to find her own pragmatic enjoyment and has an imagination - so she doesn’t seem to be missing out.

And my DD is NT, just very inquisitive and wants explanations.

I wouldn't think of autism in your case at all unless there's a lot more going on elsewhere? She just sounds like she has a questioning nature.

I never did believe in any of those things and always looked at the logical pragmatic angle as well.

It didn't make it seem any less fun or exciting, it was just more "this is a fun "let's pretend" game we all play by consensus" than "this is actually magic".

And I also played a lot of let's pretend and imaginative games. I don't think this is at all an issue. She enjoys it differently to you. It doesn't make her way of enjoying it wrong or lesser.

I wouldn't think on it's own it would be enough to say.

there's a lot of factors and other things that could indicate ASD, it could be a peice of the puzzle if you're already noticing signs or thinking along those lines. Or she could just be a logical thinker?

I honestly didn't think anybody went to bed on Christmas eve actually believing they could hear Santa, so that's a bit of an eye opener for me.

She sounds smart and can think critically. Could be autism but wouldn’t jump to conclusions without other evidence. She could be more of a science/ fact based kid which is what I would love to have.

My daughter is very like this.
The other day she asked me Does Santa know everything? And I said no. Then she asked, Do you know everything? No. Well then how do you know that Santa doesn’t know everything? I couldn’t think of an answer 🤦‍♀️
It never occurred to me that it’s sad. It is sadder to me to think of kids who wholeheartedly believe in things like Santa who get very upset when they find out the truth. It makes them that bit more vulnerable.

Is this a humble brag OP 😂. But no - it's not odd - quite a few children think like this, my son is one of them and he's just a curious kid.

I remember being at a nursery party with my two they would be age 3 and just turned 4 and they said thats not the real santa as he got out of a blue car and the real santa arrives on a sleigh. Also he has a fake beard on. They played along with the Christmas magic for a while at home and both have turned out very intelligent your daughter sounds similarly observant. Also don’t under estimate some modern or different parenting from school friends whereby they would happily tell a 5 or 6 year old that santa wasn’t real. So they may have heard it from school.

That’s how I see it too. She sounds really smart and switched on 🙂

My 7 year old ND daughter is exactly the same. She can't take anything for face value she has to make actual sense of things for herself . For example we sadly lost our family dog and I said he had to go to sleep. She was having none of that because if he went to sleep he would eventually wake up etc! She demanded to know what really happens and felt more satisfied when she knew! She came to me one day last year and said I know Santa isn't real because I Google searched it! She said she did this because nothing was making sense. These are 2 of very very many examples

My DS5 has been saying similar since last Xmas, as far as I know he is NT. on one hand I’m sad if he figures out it’s not real but also a little bit proud of him for being so smart ☺️

I was like that. I learned to appreciate "magic" later in life, but I got there.

Gently, it appears you haven't quite caught up with her still.

Her instigating imagination articles, such as the dog is a form of intellect and creativity. She is creating the narrative and playing. Completely agree appropriate and doesn't clash with her critical analysis skills.

Your 'magical' childhood beliefs are to do with immature thought processing. Perfectly developmentally appropriate, but they are societal nothing else. It's society that created the stories not the individual children. Not challenging them with rationale or critical analysis skills just means you nor your husband were ahead in your problem solving skills. Your daughter is.

I don't see how missing out on what she probably wouldn't enjoy, given her capacity is sad. She isn't you.

Enjoy and celebrate the child you have.

yes, but you would want to see if she matches up with other criteria too

Sounds exactly like my 76 year old SIL. Not cute on her either tbf but she's always been like that. She's autistic. She has many , many lovely qualities.

😂😂😂 this was me 🙈 I feel bad for my poor Mum trying to make everything magical looking back! 34 now - still very pragmatic with zero tolerance for bullshit but normal enough I’d say 😉

Sorry type in wrong ln
Place

My daughter has said similar things. Im hoping I can fake the Santa thing another year or two! However I was the same at her age. I knew there was simply no way Father Christmas could get into every single persons house in the entire world in one night. I remember lying in bed thinking how can he go to America, Africa, India, and then England etc and go in and out of all those chimneys … and then I recognised my mum and grandparents handwriting on a couple of presents. I just knew.

However I still got excited as I knew my parents were likely to have bought something I asked for! Even when I was about 13 and saw my dad hanging up our stockings on the bedroom door when I wasn’t quite asleep, still made me happy and excited for the morning.

And yes I am still a massive skeptic to this day! And got very high marks at school as some posters have mentioned that 👩🏼‍🎓 so don’t be worried!

He is not silly enough to believe the Santa's at grottos etc are real either

Don't be so obnoxious.

Children who believe are not silly.

My DS was very similar at that age. I can't remember him ever believing in Father Christmas.

I was like this as child - very logical and figured out FC aged 6. Although, equally, I thought that all women were witches (from the Roald Dahl book) and the whole world was set up to pretend to be normal and to trick me.

I was a weird child 😂

My son only had two Christmases believing in Father Christmas. By the time he was 4, he was saying that magic wasn’t real, there was no God or fairies. He’s 15 now and has a very pragmatic and scientific brain.