How I (Almost) Killed Magic

My sister wrote a post about her little girl losing a tooth and waiting for the Tooth Fairy.  When I read it, I almost cried.  You see, last week was extremely tough for me.  With Lexi out of school for the summer, Sammy starting to realize that Momma can't hold him 24/7 anymore, and Kaya starting to get demanding... Let's just say that my head wasn't exactly in the mommy game.

So here we were, me trying to find a movie that Sammy and Lexi would both enjoy so I could work on some homework, while bouncing Kaya to try to get her to stop screaming, with Sammy throwing a tantrum at my feet because I was holding the baby instead of him.  Lexi started her incessant talking, as a 7 year old is prone to do.  The topic this time was fairies (I had just passed up a Tinkerbell movie on Netflix.)

Here's how the conversation went:



Lexi: Did you know that there are all kinds of fairies?  There are water fairies, tinker fairies, fairies that change the leaves in the fall, fairies that make it snow, fairies that make the flowers open up, fairies that...
Me: (interrupting) Lexi, Tinkerbell is just a cartoon.  You know that cartoons aren't real.
Lexi: (in an aggravated "Duh Jamie" voice) Yeah I know cartoons aren't real!  Fairies ARE real though!
Me:  Who told you that?
Lexi: My Ma told me, fairies are real and they do stuff and they are magic!
Me: Lexi, fairies are not real.  They are imaginary!
Lexi: (in the smallest, most worried voice)  But the Tooth Fairy is real...

And that, Dear Readers, is when I realized my mistake.  The poor girl is 7.  She believes in the Tooth Fairy.  She believes in magic.  She wishes on stars and thinks that unicorns are real.  I almost killed her magic.  I almost made a little girl grow up too fast.

How did I respond? "Of course the Tooth Fairy is real.  I wasn't thinking about her.  Maybe I was wrong, I've never seen a fairy so I have a hard time believing in them.  But you know what? I've never seen a dinosaur either, but I do believe in them.  Maybe I just need to look harder for one, right?"

Her innocent little face lit back up, and she told me all about how fairies only come out at night when we're in bed because we're too big and might squish them and they don't want us to learn their magic because then they wont be special anymore.

I've always had a scientific mind, I'm a "see it to believe it" kind of girl - so now I realize that if I want my kids to stay innocent and hopeful throughout their childhood, I need to be more careful about what I say.  I lost my Santa Clause and Easter Bunny faith when I was about 6, because I had older sisters that told me the truth early on.

Do your kids still believe in the magic of childhood?  At what age does the magic die and turn us into these horrible selfish adults??