Little kid make-belief? Plz Help?

Question

This question goes out to the experienced parents and baby-sitters: )

I was telling my six year old sister bedtime story and I came up with a pretty good one based on Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. The problem is I made it too convincing (all the dragon-riding, hatching, telepathy, weyrs stuff) and now she really believes that there's a place called Pern. She's been pining about not being able to live in Pern and about wanting to become a dragonrider for a couple of days now.

I'm worried because I don't want to tell her that it's all fake. At the same time she's been pushing me to tell her more but I don't want her to get too into it.

It's nice to have little kids believe in folklore and such. But it's like, one day, they will realize that Santa Claus is not true and that would be a really sad day (it was for me).

So what do I do? Do I continue with the stories? Should I trying hinting to her that it's not true? If so, how?

Teenage Sister, who's a big fan of Pern

Answer 1

santa claus isnt real??

whaaaaaaaaaaa :'(

haha jus joke.

im not sure what to do.

i dont think you shoudl spoil it for her.

make up more stories!

Answer 2

I think it's really cute and nice that you love your little sister so much. I think you should ask your mom when she thinks, since it's her child. I personally think that as long as shes not doing anything harmful to her self to become "a dragon rider". Like, as long as shes not climbing up a tree and calling for a dragon or trying to "fly" or anything. Or she's not running away looking for Pern or anything. She will eventually learn that not everything is real when she gets older and starts talking with freinds who know more about whats real and such. Just as long as she's safe, I'd say go ahead and feed her imagination.

Answer 3

i suppose that you should tell her more stories but made out that the main character was just dreaming about Pern or something. Make out that because it was a dream it wasn't all true.

I remember when i was little and mum told me that fairies weren't real. I hated everyone for it, I felt like that i was living a lie. So don't leave it too long otherwise it'll just get worse.

Answer 4

worry less and let her continue imagining.  give her pens, pencils, crayons, paper, and other material to create Pern.

Answer 5

first of all, it does exist - in your imagination, so she can visit it in her day dreams and occasionally at night. Second, Santa Claus is based on a factual person - goggle search St. Nicholas - you will get the whole catholic story of what this person actually did to become St. Nicholas.  Also, like any real person, he died, but he still exists in the "spirit of Christmas" - have you heard of this?  To me, a parent, this is how mom and dad can afford to buy gifts every year at Christmas.  So, really you don't need to lie.  I do hope this helps.

Answer 6

most kids go through this kind of things and have since man told stories the best thing you could do and just let her find out in her own time

Answer 7

My sister is almost 11 and she still thinks dragons are real. Just keep telling her the stories, she'll figure it out one day.

Answer 8

I think the fun is worth it. Watch "Big Fish" the movie?

Answer 9

Well I am not a big fan of fairy tales...but I do love a creative imagination. I believe I would help her create her own Pern. Cardboard boxes, lots of arts and crafts stuff and have a party celebrating it. Invite some friends to have a Pern Party. You can explain how fun it is to pretend. Then she knows pretend is not real but fun anyway.  Barney the dinosaur basically uses the same idea of he becomes real when kids use their imagination...but they need to be able to see fact from fiction.  

Answer 10

I don't think there's anything wrong with it, I think grownups need a little more imagination actually.  As far as your sister, keep her young as long as possible and let her believe what she wants, and when it comes time for her to realize its not real, let her read the books (I'm guessing they're books, I've never heard of them but I loved the chronicles of narnia so I was stuck on that for a while and was so excited when the movies came out because I felt like a kid again)  

Answer 11

You don't have to tell her it is only make-believe. You could always tell her that the tales come from a long time ago passed down from ancient people. She may ask you if it's real. I used to tell my little cousin "I don't know, what do you think?" When he'd ask me questions about Santa, tooth fairy etc... It may sound silly, but a little make-believe is great for kids growing brains. She'll probably forget by next week or so. If your really worried pick a new book with another cool adventure, and explain to her that it's make-believe. Doing that makes it easier for kids to understand, but helps them know they can still play pretend. Another thing to try is little games like giving her pictures of a dog and a dragon and asking her to pick which one she has seen in real life, then which one was in the Pern Series, Good luck!