question for parents

iluvcats

PJ_Soul wrote:

In don't have kids, but I was a kid once. I never went for doll such as a kid - I was kind of a tom boy - but i remember playing with them with a friend in grade 5 for sure. And played with a lot of other toys until I was 12... i wouldn't have turned down a good teddy bear at that age. I think stuffed animals usually last a lot longer, even into high school, although then it's just the snuggle factor, not actually playing with them.

I realized the idea of Santa actually being real made zero sense by the time I was 3 (i don't think my folks tried overly hard to maintain the delusion), so really never believed in him. My family just pretended he was real, and honestly, that was just as fun of not more so, since I've always detected a slight hint of fear in a lot of kids who really believe in him (and we'd be kind of silly about pretending, so it was extra fun - we had a good time with it), plus my parents didn't have to lie to me. I'm pretty sure I would have resented that a bit (or a lot, if I truly believed in Santa). And really, any kid who doesn't start thinking there is something awfully strange and questionable about that story by the age of 6 or 7 may be too naive for their own good. Because that story has a LOT of holes!

I read someone has an 11 year old still believing? The choice is of course yours, but I think by that age believing in Santa could actually make the kid open to ridicule by a lot of his peers... seems a little old. And much too old to be believing in the tooth fairy and the easter bunny (has he never heard you with the basket, the gifts, putting money under his pillow? Are you sure he's not just pretending to believe at this point?). But that's just IMHO.

Yes, my friend's daughter is possibly nearly 11 (I don't know her age, due to distance, etc. I have not seen her daughter since she was a baby at my Christmas party in 2002.) But all the American girl pics (along with the cabinet that dad built) show up in the newsfeed on facebook. I don't have children, so I didn't realize American girl dolls were a collector's item. I just thought her mom was having fun herself with them Maybe I gave up dolls sooner than the average girl since I played football with my step brother and I had an older sister. She was mean and we shared a bedroom. She probably hid my stuff in the attic. I was into sports and bike riding and dancing when I was 11. Plus, I was madly in love with David Cassidy (the Partridge family, lol!)