Two or three weeks ago, Lego Lover lost one of his lower canine teeth. The other lower one was loose and last Tuesday he realised it was soon to be out. We were out in the car while his brother was at Dungeons and Dragons and he was wiggling it with his tongue until it was just hanging there. He was much braver about moving this tooth compared to the last one. It finally did come out and he was quite relieved that it didn’t bleed much at all, which did happen last time. Not that it bled much but to him it was too much. So I commented to him that he would be getting a visit from the tooth fairy that night, which made him happy.

Lego Lover has for quite some time been quite sure there was no tooth fairy. He’s discussed it with me many times and was certain that it was  impossible for there to really be a tooth fairy. And he had also come to the conclusion there was no Easter bunny. But he was on and on about Santa Claus and what he would bring for him at Christmas each year. i kept finding it odd how he didn’t believe in tooth fairies and Easter bunnies, but Santa was as real as they come. Tuesday, we again had this conversation about the tooth fairy and the Easter bunny. He was adamant that there are no real fairies. The Easter bunnyis a bit more plausible but it  is really just the parents pretending. This time, we talked more about the impossibility of these myths and somehow got onto the topic of Santa Claus. Initially he said that he partially believes in Santa. But as we talked on, he admitted that he doesn’t believe in Santa but he does believe in the idea of him.  He said he hasn’t believed in Santa since 2006. He also admitted that he hadn’t said anything before now because he was worried he’d not get so many presents.

Both of the boys held on to the Santa story until far later than I remember kids doing when I was growing up. I don’t think either wanted to let go of the idea of Santa, whether they truly believed or not. Although it’s mostly a relief to have this out in the open, I feel a bit sentimental about that era of his childhood being over. It takes me back to when I found out the truth about Santa. I was quite a bit younger and some friends revealed the truth to me. For me it was quite a shock and I remember not believing them at first. I’m not sure what made me realise they were right. I’m not sure but I don’t think there were any nasty shocks for either of the boys. I suspect when Lego Lover worked out the truth, he was probably quite pleased with himself for being so clever.