Tausi Insider

Photo : Kiselev Andrey Valerevich ( Shutterstock ) Last year, it wasn’t even Thanksgiving and my 7-year-old had already let it spill. We were driving home from school with her 5-year-old brother our 6-year-0ld neighbor when out of the blue, she said it: “Santa isn’t real.” While there’s some good advice out there on what to do when your child doesn’t believe anymore , I was unprepared for the potential social ramifications of my daughter crushing the hopes and dreams of other children. So I asked Shoshana Fagen, a psychologist with Franciscan Children’s , and psychiatrist and parent coach Jess Beachkofsky for some advice on what parents can do if their kid is the one who tells others that there’s no Santa. Recruit their help—or let go of the story altogether First, they both said, isolate the one who talked. “It is a good idea to sit your older child down privately to have a conversation with them about your expectations,” Fagan says. Then, appeal to their ego. “Talk to the kid...