Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy

[Yelof]

Everything here can also be true of a 6 year old who knows Santa isn't real

juju is right, my 5 almost 6 year old daughter knows that father christmas and the tooth faries don't exist, we used to play along for the fun but when she asks (and they ask questions REPEATEDLY at this age ) directly we just tell her it they are just stories. That doesn't stop her from playing along with the fun when she wants or from her making believe that they exist, although this year for Christmas she wanted to be the one who dressed up as Santa.

Other mythical figures we have to deal with are god and "menino Jesus", I have tried to be a little bit more open in this, we don't speak about them but Portugal is culturally catholic and her kindergarden teachers will talk to her about religion etc, I tell her that I don't believe in god or Jesus and why. But that many people do and she should respect their beliefs whatever she finally decides to believe. I tell her that Jesus spoke of compassion for the poor and warned that we should right our own faults before we should try to right the faults of others, but I also tell that that doesn't make him a god. She understands this but then she also talks about "menino Jesus" up in the sky helping people, it is not worth fighting, kids are quite able to keep inconsistancies alive in their heads at that age (many continue to keep such inconsistancies)

I had to explain the story of "Noah's Ark" the other day to her, very hard to keep a neutral tone...I mean come on, God decides to kill everybody because he wasn't happy with what he made????

-edited because of my even worse than english Portuguese spelling skills