I am writing this as a request for opinions from people here who obviously have a more open mind than others.

I have two young daughters who are in thier first couple of years of school. Like many kids they believe in fairies. One reason why they are VERY convinced is because i make fairy doors for a living, tiny wooden doors that you put on the skirting board and kids think the fairies come in I put thier door up in the middle of the night and they are convinced to this day that fairies have moved in.

Anyway, one of my kids teachers commented half jokingly about my 7 year old daughter finding it difficult to differenciate between reality and fantasy. I took no notice of the comment at first, but it bugged me throughout the summer holidays so i questioned the teacher again when the kids returned to school. I asked if this comment had anything to do with "fairies", and the teacher said yes it did. I explained that i made these doors and that my kids firmly believed in fairies. I said that they had great fun with this and as long as it was'nt interfering with school, ie; them getting bullied because of it, then i would leave them to think whatever they wanted to.
The teachers response to this was to ummm and errrr before saying that they were getting a little old for this sort of fantasy. My girls are 6 and 7.

Now i'm asking your opinions because this is a forum about many different creatures that a lot of people don't believe in. Many people scoff at the whole UFO thing, ghosts, bigfoot etc etc, yet many have seen them. Although rare in occurance, i've also read reports about people who state that they have seen fairies. Not your average nutjob, people in very responsible positions of authority or business positions who have much to lose from stating such a claim.

I have to admit i am one of these people who need proof in order to firmly believe in the existence of something. I have witnessed paranormal incidents which make me believe in that. I have even seen something i believe to be a UFO. What annoys me more than anything is that the school my daughters go to is a Church of England school. They are very much involved with the local church and as a result are taught everything you would expect about God. I don't think i even have to add any more to this subject as you will probably get what i am annoyed at. I have a very open mind, and would never knock anyones beliefs no matter how whacky i feel they might be. If you say you've seen God appear before you who am i to say thats rubbish just because i have'nt? So whats the difference with telling a little one its ok to believe in fairies?

Am i making a mountain out of a molehill with this one? I don't feel i am, i just think its wrong to put an age limit on what people should believe in.

I talk to my kids about The Bible if they ask questions, but i also talk to them about the paranormal and UFO's. They love it all and as far as i'm concerned they can make thier own mind up when they are older.

I know this is a bit different from the average post here, but i would love to hear peoples opinions if thats ok.

Thank you.

CX.

Gosh i believed in fairys untill i was at least 12 lol, and in some way i still think there may be such thing,

maybe a little different from when i was a child lol but there are many many stories of fairys, My father is from Ireland and there is alot of belief around fairys, many many stories,

I personaly see nothing wrong with your children thinking such things may be true, to behonest most of just grow out of it in our own time,

and at your childrens age everything is based around make believe, from the TV they watch ect..

I would say let them enjoy being little girls and all the fantasy that goes along with it,

If when they are older they ask more questions then tell them the truth,
Tell them about the myths and legands and im sure from there they will make up there own minds,

Never done me any harm lol we had names for ours...cindy and sunflower and every child in our family gets told the same, they live in the fire place,

I agree wholeheartedly with Asala and I view them the same way! (I do think it's an Irish thing.)

The bottom line is no one can prove they don't exist and there is no reason to have to say one way or another. Let the girls enjoy their childhood anyway they choose.

As for the teacher, she is too stuffy to be interacting with children that age if she feels the need to take a little wonder out of a child's life. Tell her to butt out. Is it her place to make these judgements? No, you are the parent and it's yours.

[edit on 10/23/2005 by Relentless]

Thanks for those replies, just wanted to check it was'nt just me thinking along these lines.

Much appreciated,

CX.

CX,

My girlfriend used to see faries when she was young, the story she has told me is more than convincing and not something i think her mind has fabricated as a youth to create "invisible friends" etc.

She also sees ghosts & entites and used to be plauged by a crew of ghosts in her old house when she was young.

My girlfriend is quite a new age, spiritual young lady. At the age of 4 1/2 she had this major heart operation from which there was an 80% chance she would be paraplegic, thank the lord, she pulled thru!!

During this op, according to her a little girl attached herself to her and would appear in her room by her bed when she was at her house. Alongside the girl was as she decribed it a pirate and the one that really frightened her, a hooded figure. All of these entites messed around with her until her mum had the housed cleared by a psychic and eventually, they moved.

She still describes seeing entites from time to time, in particular a man at the crossing up from my house who is always there. Tram lines used to run up and down my road back in the day and i beleive this is probably some guy who got hot by one or something.

Sorry for rambling on but some background always helps, anyways, the fairy thing.

I just called her on her mobile to get the proper fairy story. Same house as the ghosts, when she was about 7 or 8 she used to see faries, the main one in particular she called tinkerbell (original ;-) and as she describes her was a glowing white light colour, semi-transparent with glowing purple wings. She siad hers had a little face that would come in and out of focus. She said her back garden was filled with really large mushrooms and she used to go out there to play when one day the fairy showed up. She also told me that it used to come with her to school, she woudl call "tink" or "tinkerbell" for about 10 minutes and the fairy would end up showing up. I asked her if it used to talk to her and she said she woudl try but only got a voice inside her head. She said she wasnt sure if ti was the fairy talking back to her or just her mind talking back to herself but she loved the experience anyways. She said she has seen two different faries, the one i have described being the main one and another that would turn up on occasion whcih she described as a glowing brown colour, like wood. There was no variation in colour to this one like the other which was made up of two different colour tones, body and wings.

One day her friend was over and my girl summoned the faries while they were on the trampoline, the fairy appeared to my girl but the other girl could not see it. My girl said that the fairy was on the palm of her hand which she held up to show the other girl, the other girl told her that faires were not real and slapped her hand down on my girls hand. The fairy had was nowhere ot be seen and my girlfrined has never seen them since!!

In her head she told herself she must be crazy going form wht the other girl had siad and form what i interpret, switched off the ability to summon/interact with these beings.

Her mother not more than a year ago was at a wedding in the bush and told us the whoe bush was filled with faries, hundreds of them!! I live in New Zealand and our native fauna is quite spectacular in some regions, i have no doubts her mum was in a right place at a right time.

My girl told me that her frined has a photo or a gnome also. A picture taken of her friend in a treem at the bottom of the tree next to the trunk on the ground is a little man the same colour as the tree trunk with his arms crossed looking at the camera. I have asked my girlfrined to get the photo but she says the girl is overseas and the photo itself is at the girls grandmothers place who is psychologically disturbed and creeps my girlfriend out.

I believe all these things are real, it just some people are tuned to see them. As a younger male, i think i would probably have been to "agressive" to have these entites materialise to me, im sure i would have been unerving to a fairy as a young kid.

thats my little storytime anyway ;-)

In regards to the grandmother i mentioned above, she actully had a lobotomy and is crazy, like fully crazy.

All good ;-)

I posted a long but ultimately irrelavant reply to this...and then edited out all of my text hoping to just delete my message...obviously it doesn't work that way, so my apologies for this useless post
[edit on 3-11-2005 by Olo]

[edit on 3-11-2005 by Olo]

Olo, you just reminded me of and incident when my neice was about 2. The movie "Legend" was on and I was worried about her being in the room as the devil character is quite disturbing, but she had no reaction to it.

However, when a scene with the fairy was on the screen she threw a fit for me to turn it off saying "I don't want to see her". I said, but wait, that is the fairy and she is helping Jack, she's good. (I was very confused about her reaction.)

Her reply to me was "I know what it is and I don't like them, they are always trying to steal pretty little girls from their mothers." The defiance and anger in her demeanor stunned me. I have no clue where she could have gotten an idea like this about fairies, and neither did her mom, but she certainly thought they were real and wanted nothing to do with them.

I would suggest to the girls that fairies do not really exist in reality, but it is o.k. to pretend that they exist...

Buy them some fairy dolls or start them on a doll collection to establish a tangible "physical" representation of their fantasy. That way no one will think they are out of touch seeing what really isn't there.

You just need to give them more association with the real world, as in the fairy door. Then they will see that the fairy dolls don't come to life and are nothing more than a fantasy, they will eventually grow out of it. It's still o.k. to pretend though.

It's never wrong to imagine. We would not have fairies and other things depicted if we did not imagine. It's part of our advanced intellect to dream and be creative. You never know, if they believe enough for long enough they could one day do a job that allowed them to present their imagination in a creative form. heh

Just an opinion.

[edit on 11/21/2005 by Brainiac]

CX, alot of children that age still believe in santa and the easter bunny, and in most cases are encouraged to do so. if theres nothing wrong with that, then theres nothing wrong with their belief in faries either as far as i'm concerned...they'll grow out of it in their own time (this teacher of theirs outta know that)

Relentless, are you sure that movie was called Legend, and not Labirynth? either way i know the movie you are reffering to, and i don't know why, but i always found that farie CREEPY AS HELL!!! (she was painted all gold or somthing right?) don't know what it was, but somthin never sat right about her with me....

CCX, I'm with most people here. let them believe what they want to believe. Give them the "facts" (from both sides) and let them decide for themselves. They grow out of it at some point. My sister is 21 and she still believes in fairies. (Maybe not in the same way she would believe in God, etc. Maybe more a "hope" than a believe.)

Believing in stuff like that, i.e. fairies, dragons, Santa Clause, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc. can only be good for them (to some point). It's good for the imagination and creativity, definitely a characteristic you want in your children. And it helps them to have an open mind like yourself. You just need to make sure they have all the "facts". They'll make from it what they want, when they want. As long as it doesn't become an obsession, then it can do little harm. Even if they get teased at school for their believes, then they'll learn from that as well.

And their teacher should really loosen up as well!

Taking the magic and mystery of this world away from children at the age of 6/7 is just plain mean. There are more than enough of that going around during the teen years, not to mention adult years.

I agree with the majority in this thread, let them be kids, it will all work out.

Contrary to most scenarios, I didn't believe in faeries until I was about 15, when I saw one.

I saw it plain as day in a forest, flying right in front of me, then past me, like a radiant light with wings, but I never saw one after that. I still believe they exist, but as to the myths of faerie society etc. I still cannot believe.

Maybe one day faeries will become public, and they'll let us go to Neverland for vacation getaways, or not.

in this book I read recently called The secret life of nature : living in harmony with the hidden world of nature spirits from fairies to quarks

it talks a lot about fairies and all types of elementals and their role in maintaining nature....there are a lot of fairy events that occured in the early 1900's..there are even pics that 2 little girls took a long time ago filled with fairies that plenty of photo experts can't find anything wrong with..very interesting subject..but I believe there are more elemental spirits than just fairies

Yes, I know the two you are talking about. There was a movie made about them, and it had Houddini in it too.

Can't recall what their names are though!

[edit on 10-12-2005 by E_Pluribus_Unum]

I thought that they showed that photo on unsolved mysteries. Personally, I believe in fairies. All 3 of my children believed in fairies. That was the kind of books they liked for me to read them at night. They are grown now but if you ask them if they believe in fairies...I believe that they would say yes!