Did you talk to your kids about the Boston bombing? My daughter, who is 6 caught a glimpse of the news (nothing graphic) when it was on the night of and I was just wondering if I should talk to her about it. If you did talk to your kids about it what did you say?
No, we didn't discuss it. There is no need to inform a child that there is truly evil in this world. They have enough to deal with just being a child and their own trials and tribulations.
We did not talk to DS (7) about it. There was a ton of info circulating around the time of Newtown that discussed the appropriate age to start discussing these things with children. Along with some guidelines. You should be able to find some links. If you google the Newtown shooting on this board, I think you will be able to find a bunch of info.
I did but I live 30 minutes outside the city so it was unavoidable. We have several friends who ran that day, including my 1st grader's classmate's dad, so one of his friends was at the race itself and he was very excited for him, then worried about him. We didn't leave the news on very much but with 24 hour coverage of the manhunt, it was impossible to avoid. Also it was school vacation week here so they went to day camp and had play dates but they didn't have the normal focus of school to occupy them.
Anyway...I leaned on the "look for the helpers" line from Mr. Rogers, which unfortunately I've had to use far too often it seems. We watched the footage of the blast (not the gory close-ups but the wider view where you can see people running to help) and I focused on how many people ran *towards* the blast and immediately started to help rescue people. I focused on the fact that there were thousands of people there and fewer than 200 were hurt and that there were only a couple of bad guys and hundreds of helpers and thousand of good guys. That the good people will always outnumber the bad ones, and that the bad ones will be caught and punished. They were happy and relieved last night that the bad guys were caught (well one is dead) and their friends were talking about it today so I'm glad they heard it from us first.
I'd say that where you are if she only saw something brief last Monday and hasn't heard or asked about anything since, let it go.
I didn't tell my first grader and feel a bit worried bc she could hear on Monday in school, but she didn't hear about Newtown and I'd hate to tell her unless necessary...
Nope. I don't watch the news. I listen to the radio and the news updates do a fine job of keeping me informed. If he saw something and asked, I would answer his questions in a very general way. A child does not need adult level details and worries. If she asks you, answer her in the most basic way. I wouldn't bring it up because hopefully she isn't thinking about it at all.
If she caught a glimpse on the news on Monday, and has not mentioned it since - then there is no need to engage her in conversation about it.
I believe that we do need to shield our youngest from these events. My son was 5 during 9/11 and he saw too much on the news that day - my fault - I really didn't think he would understand what he was seeing. It took me weeks to calm him down. After that I only watched news after he was asleep or I got on-line.
I didn't discuss, but she caught some of it on the news and understands what happened.
I kept the Colorado Movie (Superman) shooting from her and her friend told her about it in school. I wished I had told her.
My kids watched it with me (11, 9, 6 and 3). It obviously went over the youngest ones head. The others asked question which were answered, and have handled it fine.
Typically with these sorts of events, if they don't ask, we don't offer information or tell our 2 boys about it. Our almost 8 yr old heard about it from a boy in class & then told. Turns out this other little boy had a teacher who ran in the race but was O.. That is all he said about it. I was very worried once my son got in the car & mentioned it. He didn't ask anything so I didn't offer an furhter information. Then we picked up his older brother (12.5) & it came on the radio so he asked what happened. I gave him basic info w/o any opinions. Kept it short & sweet. He asked no more questions about it. I don't mean to sound callous or cruel, but if the event does not personally or directly effect our lives in any way, my husband & I don't feel the need to inform our kids unless they ask. We feel that even at 12.5, it's still a lot for kids to process. Unfortuantely, our older son has a friend who's father has some very strong political opinions that differ drastically from our's. The friend then tells our younger son it was a terrorist, it was North Korea. I was so angry at that kid! I very firmly told our sons we do not know anything about the people who did this or why they did it. And that it is not O. to go around saying things like that when you do not have the correct information. Again, short & sweet & it was over.
