1st grade, Danny Brogan had to come to school and spoil it. I went home and my parents confirmed it when confronted. I had to live the lie until my sister, 3 years younger than me, figured it out. Seemed like she got a lot further than I did.
Now my 3 kids are close in age, but all very different. My oldest son seems like an old soul, seems to have known since around first grade, but still won't admit it, won't answer directly. Think he'll be a good politician. We think he feared if he admitted it, the presents would stop rolling in, so he "believed".
My daughter heard rumors, asked us after 4th grade, we confirmed. Her twin brother, now in 5th grade is still all about Santa. Even though he's debunked the Easter bunny, tooth fairy, and thankfully that damn elf on the shelf. If he doesn't realize soon, we plan to have a talk with him before middle school.
We made her promise not to tell her little sister, but this topic came up earlier this year (she turns 18 tomorrow) as she told us that she remembers that conversation vividly and BECAUSE of that truthfulness, she has made a concerted effort to NEVER lie to us. And she's told us some pretty shocking things when we asked her straight up about them. As far as we can tell she's never lied to us if we've asked her something directly. And she attributes that to us never lying to HER when she asked us about Santa.
