Both of my children are generally very happy, well adjusted little people but they’re both very sensitive to what’s going on around them in the world – possibly a bit too much so.
Master Frugal, for example, cried his eyes out when we watched Comic Relief together as he was so upset at the conditions that some children his age have to live in. He is a bit of a worrier although he worries about other people more he worries about himself – a few weeks ago when we were in London, I was so proud when he spent his own money on some food and a cup of tea for a homeless man who we passed a few times near our hotel. (The blogger in me was dying to take a photo of the proud handover moment to go on Instagram but I restrained myself. Just ;-)).
Miss Frugal hates watching the news because she thinks that some of the bad things that she sees on there could happen to us. She also can’t sleep if she hears the police helicopter overhead at night (difficult as we live near the base) as she worries that there are bad people outside. We went to the National War Museum in Manchester recently where we saw a steel girder from one of the Twin Towers and she couldn’t even go near it because the thought of what happened and how many people died upsets her so much.
More recent events like bombings in Boston brought about lots of questions from both children about how someone could do that, why someone would choose to hurt other people and the big one, how do you know it wont happen to us when we’re somewhere?
They’re all good questions, in fact they’re all questions I’ve asked myself many times over the last few years.
But I have no idea what the answers are.
How do you explain things like this to your children?
I think all you can do is tell them the basic facts, not over expose them to the news and make sure they know they can talk to you if they have any concerns. What do you think?
