What Would You Tell Two Precious Seven Year-Olds
When they look at flagpoles and ask, "Who died, Mommy?"
posted by kate @ 1:48 PM
5 comments
Out in Left Field
Where parenting and politics meet, but don't always play nice.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
kate
See my complete profile
Talk To Me
Blogroll Me!
My Musings from The St. Petersburg Times
from In The Loop
from tbt*
from The Weekly Planet
from the world wide web
5 Comments:
Honesty is the best policy. I was always honest with my boy..... to a point. He's almost 17 now.
I agree with Tam. Straight forward at a level they can understand. Not talking about the victims and the shooter doesn't make this horrible time go away. We have to learn as much as we can from it and move on. You will find a path with them.
At least one state's governor has directed flags to be flown at half staff when ever there is a funeral in the state for a service member killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Even though he is a republican, working to get McCain elected even, at least he has been able to honor the dead without worrying about how bad it makes the administration look.
I know this doesn't answer your question, but wonderful how quickly Bush was able to make it down to Blacksburg and order flag lowering for an incident where no blame can be laid at his feet.
The FirstGrader asked about the flags this weekend also. I gave her the truth.
They actually heard about it at school. From a fellow student. They heard that a man broke up with his girlfriend and shot the girlfriend and all the other girls at Virginia Tech.
I suppose there is something to be said about telling your kids yourself FIRST so they at least know the truth. Ahh, well. There's always next time.
I had to tell them that the bad man didn't have a girlfriend, or any friends for that matter, and was angry about it. So he hurt students and teachers at Virginia Tech and then hurt himself. My kids wanted to know how he hurt people so I told them, "with a gun". I also said that it was a bad and terrible thing he did and we're all very sad about it.
It's an awful moment when you have to explain to children that there is evil in the world. Awful.
Post a Comment
<< Home