Here in Holy Worlds we develop, share, and discuss all kinds of weird things. Dragons who mind-speak and morph into humanoids, a race who can make armor and weapons out of energy, people who turn invisible or create fire at will, planets that are flat...just to name a few.
We do not have any problems with this. We do not start getting confused. Why not? Because we know they are not reality.

But were you always able to distinguish fact and fantasy so easily?

When I was young, maybe ten or so, I read a book set in New York City. It was about a boy who liked to talk with the Hansom Cab horses. Talking with horses was an acquired skill, obtained by careful observation skills and lots of exposure to horses, and it was done by looking deep into the horse's eyes, until you could "see" what it wanted to say. Similar to mind-speaking, except eye contact was necessary. Once you figured it out, the horse proved to be just as intelligent as a human.

I totally fell for it. I was horse crazy, and I knew horses were smart. I had always wanted to talk to horses, and now here was a way to do it! Though I knew that story was fiction, I was sure, for quite a while, that it was possible to have an intelligent conversation with a horse. Luckily I was unable to try it out!

This thread is to share the crazy things you believed when you were younger, or the crazy things you have watched children absorb and believe.
The point of this thread: Fantasy has different effects on children than it does adults. Kids will believe anything. Adults can distinguish reality from unreality.

Personally, I think Santa Clause is VERY dangerous for children. It can be very hard to explain that Christmas is about Jesus, but encourage them to believe in Santa, the man who brings all the presents.

I agree.

My parents do not lie to us. Period. They had always told us that. If we asked a straight question, they gave a straight answer.

Except when it came to Santa, the Easter bunny, and the Tooth Fairy.

So after they became saved and started telling us about Jesus, they realized a startling truth. They tell us that Jesus knows all about us, knows everything we do, He created all things- you just can't see Him.

Sounds a lot like the elusive Santa Claus.

So they made a decision. They told us that they had lied to us. They told us the world tells parents it is okay to lie to their children in this area, and they believed them. However, they no longer thought it was right, and why would we believe them about Christ being real, if they were lying to us about Santa.

It was a drastic change, and we began to study the story about the real Saint Nicholas (very cool historical figure).

Now, all that to say that was my parents decision to make. No one forced them into it, and they would never ever tell anyone else that they should or should not tell their children about Santa. We celebrate Saint Nicholas day on the 6th of December every year. From the day after Thanksgiving, till the 6th, we have up Santa decorations, then we put it all away and focus solely on Christ and His coming.

Why we celebrate Saint Nicholas still is a long story, which would make this very off topic.

We have to be very careful what we present to Children as true. This is why I have issues with children's books that mix dark topics into their stories. Children's minds are naturally curious. They are very impressionable. There are certain things they don't need to be exposed to as children.

Yes, kids will ardently believe in Santa Claus if told he is real. My parents always let us know that it was just a game.

Love this thread!
Totally agree with everyone.
My parents never lied to us about Santa, and I'm going to do the same with my kids.

When you were a kid, did you ever read fantasy and believe it, or something about it?

I fully bought into Toy Story, hook, line, and sinker. The fantastical idea that your toys are sentient, can talk and move- yeah, I actually got mad at someone for saying Shadow wasn't real.

Wow.

My parents have never said Santa is real. In fact, they often tease me or joke with me about it... "You better be asleep on Christmas Eve if you want Santa to come". It was fun for us, because we all know he's not real.

This Christmas, I had a great deal of fun "tracking" Santa through the NORAD site. (It was also done on Google, I believe.) I think it's fun for children who know that Santa isn't real. I mean... the graphics weren't that great (digital painting of Santa, anyone? ), but it also offered information about different geographical places.

I don't plan to tell my children that Santa is real, because he isn't. If they are told that Santa is real and later find out that he isn't, what will they think about Jesus, or Christianity, or important things? They'll most likely have doubts about it.

Children are easily impressionable. That's why we have to be careful about what they see and read at a young age, and what content we put in our writings for children. We must be responsible with our writings, if we intend them to be for children, in my opinion.

I was always told that Santa was not real. I know families who tell their kids that he is, and when they are older they 'break the news' to them. However, personally I won't be telling mine that he is real. Each to their own though, everyone is different!

I agree that pushing the "Santa Claus is real!" line (and similarly for other current myths) is dangerous and counterproductive. But I don't agree that "kids can't distinguish between fantasy and reality, while adults can." I think it was either Lewis or Tolkien (if the latter, it was probably in "On Fairy-Stories") who made the point that children can tell quite well that in our modern world (for example---since I forget the example he used) brownies don't come out of the woodwork every night to do their chores for them. But children are likely to wish that fairy-tales (however gruesome their world!) were true. And if they are told that a particular story is true, they're somewhat likely to believe it. On the other hand, adults on the whole are hardly better---a substantial minority (if not a majority!) of the population seem to think that "if someone posted it on the Internet, it must be true!" And many dedicate their lives to the promotion of propositions that seem to me to be obviously false.
In summary, then, I think the difference between children and adults is that children know the difference between "reality" and "pretend" (or "England" and "Fairyland"), but depend on adults to make clear which stories are true in our world and which are only true in "pretend"---in secondary worlds created by our imaginations in addition to God's.

Ooooh! *Loves this thread* I have stuff to say on this subject. And I'll be back with a long rant when I have time. You have been warned. And I agree with what everyone said.

That sounds fun, Azlyn.

We'll look forward to hearing your thoughts, Mae!

There was one "anything" I totally fell for!

I was about 4 years old; our family was visiting a fun, hands-on sort of science museum. We were watching a demonstration which was talking about food and nutrition or something. The woman doing the demonstration had a number of props on hand that she would sometimes use. At one point she was saying....

"An apple actually consists of about 60% sugar, and the rest is mostly water. In fact, if you put a cup of sugar..." (she puts a cup of sugar into a pot of some sort) "...and a cup of water..." (in goes the water) "...with some apple DNA,... " (she empties a vial of something into the pot, and swishes it around) "...you essentially have an apple!" And she pulls the apple out of the pot.

While all the grownups were chuckling, I was busy digesting the implications of this incredible new mechanism. I spent the next five minutes begging mom and dad to let us do it at home. (Apple DNA? Couldn't be too hard to get!) Of course, they set me straight pretty soon. Blast!

*laughs out loud * That is the funniest story I've heard all week-er, last week, since there isn't much to this week.

That is hilarious, Cephron!

Yes, it is!

Hmmm. Thank you for that input, Kingjon. Maybe it's more like "Humans will believe anything".
I guess it depends on how it's packaged. Children are likely to trust the adults in their lives ("My dad said Santa Claus is real! So he is!"), while adults tend to be more cautious towards authority figures. (At least, the adults around me are.)

I actually know many children who would believe lots of things in fantasy. Sure, they probably won't believe a fluffy pink bunny is real (well, at Easter time they are, I know people who dye their rabbits), but they are VERY influenced by fantasy. Which is why I believe things must be very cut and dry. After all, how many children do you know that will imitate what they read or watch? Or will repeat what they hear (anyone ever had the 5 year old repeat a bad work they picked up from a grandparent?). Many children even believe that "well if Anne of Green Gables did it, so can I. It's okay" (Anne's name just came to mind, she's not really an example in this situation).

Believing isn’t just the conscious “Oh, I think that that is true”. Emulation shows integration. And Integration means that they bought into something, on some level.

::likes this thread::
I never believed any fantasy when I was little, mainly for the reason that I never knew it. My family didn't Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, etc. I didn't read or watch fairy tales. Magic was off limits. I do not think that was overprotective of my parents, nor do I think that is right or perfect for every family.

But I still liked to imagine fairies. I wished I could believe in them and I pretended I did. I knew exactly what was real and what wasn't, but I was always pretending otherwise. A romantic, I guess.

It surprises me sometimes how many little kids really do believe in holiday myths. I remember one time I was chatting with some kids about Halloween lies (something I think no kid should actually believe) and I mentioned that the ghosts all that was a myth. One little girl says, "What's a myth?" I said it was like the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy. Ouch. Might as well have dug my grave.

Well ... isn't that the point? The justification for fiction in general (not just fantasy), going back to the sixteenth century at the latest, is that by telling stories of events that have not actually occurred (what we might describe to a child as "pretend"), we can provide enjoyment and edification; we can "teach and delight."
I agree that children have an initially uncritical openness to instruction, though I remain convinced that they quickly develop an understanding of the difference between "real" and "pretend" (as well as, in many cases, a preference for the "pretend" over the real world ... can we blame them?). As I said above, adults have a responsibility to be truthful about which stories are true and which are "pretend", to which we can add a responsibility to ensure a diet of stories that are edifying to that child---and a responsibility for authors to write stories that portray God's truth and display his glory. If a child develops a bad habit by imitating a fantasy book, that may be the fault of the author for providing a bad model, but it's not a fault of fantasy in general any more than it's a fault of fiction in general.

Yes...good point.

I think children who are taught to quickly developed it, do. I know lots who do not. But that is not the responsibility of the writer. It is the responsibility of the parents.

There have been several things that I either believed or wished were real in the past. I used to think/wish that, given the willpower, I could--just maybe--disappear and appear somewhere else. And then there were many times when I thought I saw fairies out of the corner of my eye (again, though, I did know that it wasn't real. Yet I just wished it was, rather like Phylis said earlier.)

I think the most significant childhood fantasy actually came from Frances Hodgeson Burnette's A Little Princess, where Sara (the main character) was convinced that her dolls came to life after she left the room. I think there was a time when I really believed that.

As to the Santa discussion, my parents always let me know that it was simply a fun story and not true at all. Now I wouldn't judge others for telling/not telling, but I do think it's ridiculous to go to extravagant lengths to persuade your children to believe in a lie.

Huh. I can't remember when I stopped believing in Santa Clause. It was kind of just one year he was real, and the next, he wasn't. Same with the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. I'm pretty sure I stopped believing in the Tooth Fairy before I lost all my teeth. It might have been around the time that I stopped thinking I could jump into books.
Yes. When I was little, I always wanted to jump onto books and change what was happening. I wouldn't say that I believed I could, but I wanted to believe I could. I think I only tried it twice, and I certainly never told anyone.
At one point in my life I wondered if Fantasy authors actually visited the worlds that they wrote about, then just made up stories about them.
Like many kids, I had imaginary friends, though I'm unsure how much I ever believed in them. They were my best friends, though. Imaginary friends always agree with you if you're upset at someone.
There was only one thing that my parents and I had a deep discussion about as far as fantasy goes: Harry Potter. Before I started reading it, I fully understood that magic wasn't real the way it was portrayed, and that there's no such thing as a 'good witch'.

I love to act and pretend the scenes from my stories.

Most of my silly ideas didn't come out of books. I truly, completely believed that my stuffed animals, and dolls, and posters came to life while I slept. And I always felt really bad about playing with any one toy too much because I didn't want to make the others feel left out. *grin*

There was one time though...I'd just read the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe for the first time...and I went into my closet and just sat there hoping and hoping that I'd be able to find a magical land. I did that several times, but sadly...it never happened.

I was the same way with my stuffed animals! I always felt so bad for those poor ones that got stuck on top of a shelf for months at a time...

I'm barely 11, and I've always been able to tell the difference for as long as I can remember.
I can easily tell the difference between real, and fantasy, however, my cousin who happens to be older than me, still genuinely believes in Santa, and will not be convinced out of it.
So, no, even though I am a KID, I will not believe anything. *Pokes Aemi*

When I was little, I would bring ALL my stuffed animals to watch a movie in the living room. I didn't want to leave any in my room because they might feel sad

Heehee. Okay, kids besides Lady Ness will believe anything.
That is the issue I had in mind when I started this thread. Kids who read those books want the magic to be real, and since the author uses words like "witch", "spell", and "hex", etc. the child, with a little research, could easily find groups such as Wicca, who promise them power like that.

I read a Christmas book close to Christmas one time and it said that at 12:00 am on Christmas morning your pets would talk to you, and I was so excited because I always wanted to know what my cat liked or didn't like. I didn't get to stay up but I eventually figured it out.

That is hilarious.

Some of them go so far as to become a wiccan in order to be like the hero they love.

That's the real trouble, I think. Mixing fantasy with something as real as witchcraft. Fantasy isn't really the problem, it is the portrayal and how attainable you make it.

My parents always told me that Santa Clause wasn't real. And to be honest, I was afraid of him! lol
Whenever we went to the mall or wherever 'Santa' was going to be, I was so shy I think I cried when my parents jokingly asked me if I wanted a picture with him. lol
A Christian mother that I know told her little boy(about 7 or 8) the truth about Santa Clause, that people celebrate St. Nicolas and St. Nicolas died a long time ago. So when they went to a mall or something after Christmas, someone asked the little boy, "So, what'd Santa get you for Christmas?"
He answered, "Santa's dead." LOL

I also had my stuffed animals watch a movie with me when I did, and once I wanted to bring one of them to the movie theater with me. lol
And I talked to them too.

About Harry Potter, for the very reason of witchcraft, our parents didn't want us to read or watch it. I still haven't read or watched it.

On the saying kids will believe anything, I don't believe that's quite true. It depends on how mature a child is and how much they trust people. A hard hearted orphan who has had to grow up too quickly probably doesn't believe adults (or trusts them) as much if they don't know them.

When I'm reading one of my books I say the lines out loud like I'm reading a script...

I think it is more accurate to say "Children will take things to extremes with little encouragement", more so than they will believe anything.

Of course, everyone knows that the glitter I use is not because I’m girly, but because it wards off the villains of HW. Why else would we use it in the Introductions and Celebrations threads?