3 year old doesn't think Santa is real

My daughter is 3 (she'll be 4 next month) gave me a gut punch. Thanksgiving when her cousins were over, the girl who is 3 years older, I'll call her Emily. Well Emily is bad. I hate calling kids bad, but she is. It's mostly because shes the only girl in that family and they let her get away with everything. Jumping on the couch, sitting and jumping on the counters, instigating her brothers by hitting and being mean (the boys are disciplined when they react, not Emily) talking back (the girl screams I hate you if you look at her wrong). Not to mention every time she's over and plays with my daughter she gets her to act bad and my daughter says mean things for the next month. She's not over often but the final straw was thanksgiving. Emily was going around thanksgiving telling my three year old Santa wasn't real, no one said a word to her. It's killing me more than I thought hearing those words come out of her mouth. She didn't want to sit on santas lap this year "because Santa isn't real". I knew it would come eventually, but I was expecting her to be in school at least. But here we are, because of Emily. I'm tired of this, the kid is a bad influence. It's not her fault but her parents do NOTHING. Would you put your foot down and cut off contact? Again it's not just the Santa thing, it's behavioral. The Santa thing is just the cherry on top.

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I’m sorry about her behavioral issues, for me personally I’m not going to be telling my kids Santa is real and I’m not going to make my kids lie to other children if they are directly asked, but I will direct my children to not tell other children outright. I think that the other reasons are more than enough for you to cut contact with this child. She’s rubbing off in a bad way.

Do you ever say anything to Emily or her parents? I'm definitely not against cutting them off or at least not having the children around each other.
Also your 3 year old will forget. Don't make it too much of a thing

Honestly, I would cut contact for the behavior not the Santa thing. I wouldn't put up with my kids being around a child like that because they don't deserve to be on the receiving end of crappy behavior.

The Santa thing is done, but she can still have a magical Christmas, so long as she sees you all enjoying yourself, imo.

I'd probably put a little more distance between my kid and theirs… that sounds really stressful. I'd also stay close in those situations and say something like, "Some people say Santa isn't real, some people think they've seen him. Different families believe different things."

Talk to her parents and don’t hold your tongue! Give them time to change. If it happens again then no contact.

It’s not her that’s bad, it’s her parents & yeah, I wouldn’t want my kids around them. You can maybe still save Santa, watch The Polar Express, get 2 bells, replace the inner piece of one w/ something similar looking that’ll make a dull sound instead of a bell ring, then talk about the magic of Santa only working for those who believe & that’s why so many adults don’t believe. I have the absolute worst ability to tell lies, so I keep reminding myself that me & my hubs are Santa & we’re very much real. My 16y picked up on it around 9-10y that it was my belief in our family that was actually the magic of Santa that I believed in, totally got busted in my not lie lie, but he just smiled, he still gets Santa gifts & helps keep Santa alive for his 4y brother. I honestly have a nephew, now 21, his mom did similar to me & he was still making Santa lists & going to the mall to see Santa at 12, he basically told his friends to shove it, he wanted to believe. It was the sweetest thing ever.

Don't forget to chatgbt a Santa into your home 😉

You can't interfere with your child's beliefs. If she doesn't believe in Santa rn that's ok. Yet I would cut contact because I don't want to hang out with really bad educated kids. As for adults, having bad influence around have consequences on us.

I’d tell my kid Santa is real he just doesn’t visit Emily because she’s naughty. And I’d avoid Emily, she sounds like a bad egg.

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