If you have young children, you may have struggled with how to explain the death of Osama Bin Laden to them.
The morning after he was killed, our TV was set to the news coverage. The boys knew this was unusual because the television is rarely on in the mornings. “Whose that guy?” my five-year-old asked. Great question, little man.
I hesitated. These moments and answers can define how we think about things as adults. I remember some of the answers my parent’s gave me to life’s big questions that stayed with me. And some of them were just… weird. I don’t want to say wrong, because I’m not sure what the circumstances were when they gave me the answers. Maybe I asked a difficult question while my mother was cooking or washing dishes. My little girl self must have had the same radar my boys do — the louder it is and the more distracted I am seems to be the time to ask a question.
I was not distracted for this conversation, however. My answer was as honest and simple as I could make it. He seemed to understand or, at least, accept what I was saying.
I don’t know if he’ll look back and remember this conversation, but I’m hopeful if he does, he won’t think I was being… weird.
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OM is *one moment* and is a meetup designed to notice & relish a moment in everyday life. The meetup idea was created by Linda at her blog, a la mode stuff.If you’d like to participate in OM, just click the button and you’ll be taken to Linda’s post explaining it all.
You know, the day after all the news took place, I was teaching sewing to some girls at a local school, and I wondered how the teachers handled this media and the childrens’ chatter. I’m a little relived that my daughter is too young to understand, yet I know I will be in your shoes oh too soon. I think honest and simple is best. Communication is so important with children that age.
We were on the same wave length this week. It was only slightly easier to talk to my boys since they are older. However, we’ll be discussing this for a long time to come. I think the key is to keep communication open and appropriate every step of the way. So long as we can talk to our kids and they feel comfortable talking to us, we’ll muddle through.