Or is this Santa post unreasonable?

[BusySyllabub]

The author of gentle parenting books Sarah Ockwell Smith posted on Instagram that it’s best to never pretend that Santa is real.

I did some research on this just to be sure and discovered research that indicated that very few children are adversely affected by the Santa myth.

AIBU to think that we are overthinking everything, taking the magic out of childhood, and that educators are now posting nonsense for clicks and engagement?

The 'magic' stopping is more likely not related to Santa but to children growing up and getting older and ageing out of that initial kind of Christmas 'magic' age generally, which is where they perhaps aren't as interested in all the Christmas stuff us parents like to think is magical

I agree. It's completely normal for some kids to start getting bored with big family holiday events as they get older. Not so interested anymore in the pre-Christmas activities and family outings that they enjoyed when they were younger. They become more friend-oriented and less "let's drink cocoa and look at Christmas lights!".

For some parents that means the " magic " is gone.

And then there are people who love the holidays and everything to do with Christmas their entire lives. It will always be magical to them. Nothing wrong with that either😀

I’d never call the FC thing a ‘lie’ though. It’s a benevolent sort of fib, a bit like the sort of what is called ‘love lies’ for people with dementia, when telling them the truth is only going to cause a lot of distress - when they’re going to forget whatever you say so quickly anyway. (I have too much experience of using those!😩)

I’ve not read anywhere that anyone says you can’t be honest about Santa if you’re religious. I said they are similar untruths. Blind faith, a proportion of the world believes whereas others know it’s not true.

Religion is a debatable subject. You can say you don’t believe. It’s not rude (or ignorant) 🙄

You're gonna tell me the car park fairy is a myth too ....

Don't expect to find a space tomorrow!

Well the car park fairy never looks after me. I'm still worrying about granddads leprechauns. After he died the house was demolished as part of a road improvement scheme, where would the leprechauns have gone?

I think it’s for individual parents to decide.

These are exactly my feelings.

She actually doesn't recommend this though. If you read her full post on the matter, she says there's no such thing as a "gentle parenting approach to santa", you can have him or not have him, each to their own, but for those interested this is what she did in her house. What's so offensive about that??