Expert Claims Making Children Believe in Santa Claus Can Traumatise Them

An expert claims that the myth about Santa Claus can do children more harm than good.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Australian social scientist Dr Kathy McKay said children can be left ‘traumatised’ when they learn that Santa Claus is not real, and so they have to ‘reconceptualise everything’.

She wrote in the Lancet Psychiatry journal that telling kids to believe in myths “has to be questioned morally.”

She further criticised the idea of a “judgmental, gift-giving man” assessing the behaviour of children around the world.

The article, co-authored by psychology professor Christopher Boyle, suggested that parents want to maintain the myth of the magical Christmas figure out of a selfish desire to relive their childhood.

Dr McKay says the children she works with on Nauru are “perfectly happy” without the Santa Claus myth. “I think it’s easy to get that tradition to change, the Santa tradition is a relatively new one,” she told the Daily Telegraph.

“It’s not about necessarily getting rid of Santa but understanding why you’re choosing to have Santa and why that’s important to you and having those really important conversations about lying,” she said.

However, Michel Carr-Gregg, a child psychologist, said Santa Claus was an important part of Australian culture. “For many families, the excitement of leaving stuff out for Santa, watching through the window at night, they’re just lovely traditions,” he told the Daily Telegraph.

Source: Dailymail.co.uk