Why should we not tell people the world is cruel when they are children?

Because with hope they can build themselves to face the real world and if they are afraid they will never face the world at all. Children have to learn it slowly and most of it is best least through personal experiences. Some may need to learn that only much later in life some happen to stumble on it sooner. Children have to grow up living the world around them and not being afraid if it.

1. It's like an induction program of any organization. You get to hear all good things there and later discover the bad ones yourself . 2. It's good that they don't accept the truth. Children are free. We can't bound their imagination and their desires. We develop a way of living in freedom at childhood which later acts as a friction against being a prey of the world's cruelty.   If we know the reality ,we would be too protective from childhood itself.     Suppose I knew that the world is full of rapists and gropers, I wouldn't have ever been a free and happy girl. I would have accepted the reality and always hid myself behind the walls. But since I was free, I fight fort it even as an adult. I fight against the world to get my freedom back. So in a way it makes the cruelty difficult to persist. 3.Talking in terms of market, being a parent you are the producer of his life. Now you need to satisfy him that it's worth living with great morals and hopes.

I do tell my son the world is cruel. I tell him there are people out there that will try to harm you, try to take advantage of you. So be aware of them.   I balance it with raising him the right way. Not one to harm people just cause, not one to take advantage of others.   I also share with him just how great this world is, because it really is. I am sharing how great the world is much more than I am sharing how awful it is.   On that santa part, we do play that game. I had lots of fun as a child with that, so yea I didn't feel like robbing him of that fun!