It’s always (understandably) a sad time for parents when their child finds out that Father Christmas isn’t real.
But this mother could never have predicted the backlash she’d receive when her six-year-old son decided to tell all his classmates there's no such thing as Santa.
And, taking to Reddit, she revealed that she was sent a letter threatening LEGAL ACTION against both her and her child.
She wrote: "Last week my first grade son told a group of kids Santa does not exist.
"Today via courier (not the mail), I received a rather threatening letter from a well-known, local, elite law firm threatening suit due to emotional damage, flagrant disregard to parental rights, and facilitating the loss of innocence of child wonderment.
“Yeah, seriously.”
She added: “I should mention that one of the kids is related to a lawyer at this law firm, I believe a brother of one of the angry mums works there."
And, as if that weren’t enough, the legal letter didn’t stop there.
The mum continued: “The letter has eight kids names that were ‘traumatised’ by my son’s ‘negligent actions’ and demands that he stay away from them at all times, he is to never interact with them.
“Here is the icing on the cake, in lieu of suit: the letter states that I need to pay for a fully interactive ‘Santa Experience’ whereby a hired Santa will be hosted at one of the kids houses for a ‘Santa Experience’ where he hands out presents (at my expense), sings songs with all eight kids, and offers general Christmas cheer.
“The purpose of this is to ‘reverse the damage my son caused and re-spark the child like wonderment that surrounds the holidays.’
“They have given me until the 15th of September to ‘rectify this unfortunate situation.’”
She finished: “As a single mom, I really do not have the cash on hand to hire a lawyer. I am tempted to take this to the school principal for assistance… any advice here would be appreciated. I could honestly not give to flying f**ks about these kids (I seriously doubt they are traumatised), but I need to protect myself and my little boy.”
The mum was flooded with words of advice from fellow parents - not to mention lawyers - on Reddit, almost all of whom insisted that she stand up for herself and either speak to the head of the law firm, or organise a meeting with her six-year-old’s teacher.
She seems to have followed their advice.
Her latest update reads: "I have a meeting scheduled this morning with the school principal. I called him and left a voicemail and sent an email yesterday evening giving him a brief rundown of the situation.
"He called me last night and scheduled a meeting with me. The brief conversation that we had, he eluded that he knew that there was 'PTA drama' and that some kids had learned about Santa.
"One of the mothers had contacted him a few days ago asking what the school was going to do about this situation. We had a laugh at this woman's expense."
What would you do if you were in this woman’s situation?
Let us know via Facebook or Twitter (@CloserOnline) now.