Believing

I don't recall the age I was when I figured out the little secret about the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and even Santa Claus. But, I have hard time believing that Riley will continue believing much longer... he actually just found out about the Tooth Fairy a couple of weeks ago. He caught "her" green handed a while back. To my defense, the kid should have been WAY asleep at this point. Oh well, I told him the truth followed by a warning NOT to talk about this to his brother. A 6 year old (at the time) has every right to still believe and have fun with it.
I was SO sure this was going to be the year that Riley became suspicious of "Santa," mostly due to the TF incident. So far he hasn't questioned anything! We even had a sad conversation at dinner last week, and Riley came to Santa's defense. Reece came home from school telling us that a couple boy's in his class told him Santa was dead. And, since he was dead, their parents had to be Santa for them. Keep in mind that Reece is only in 1st grade, and I felt so sad and mad that these poor kids couldn't just enjoy the tradition at their young age. I told Reece that maybe they were naughty and Santa won't come their home, so mom and dad had to do Santa's job. Is that bad?? It just broke my heart.... and one of the first thoughts that actually crossed my mind, was the very low income school the boys go to. Kids at the boy's school see things in their daily lives that they shouldn't ever have to at such a young age, and what if the lack of "Santa" is just one more reality they have to live with in their early years. What a sad childhood! Thankfully, Mrs. Olander did get upset with the kids who were saying such things, and both of my boys were in complete shock that anyone would think this way!
Guess we get to "believe" a while longer.... and I'm okay with that!