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Kids knowing...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
As some of you know, I helped out at this summer camp. And a scenario made me wonder about kids and politics.
I sat next to these small boys, one was 6-7 and the other 8-9 years old, who were both from Israel (the mother of the small one was also sitting in the near).
Started talking with the "bigger" one out of them, and found out that he lives quite near my uncle in Israel, so I started talking with him about different places in the near of them... Then I asked him, if he still went to the mall which is nearby?
He didn't even answer my question before he started telling me about a carbomb he had seen, and a bomb near the school etc. I let him talk, and asked questions, as he obviously needed to get it all out.
The other little boy then started talking about some other bombs and the WTC and so. Then the mother interferes and says that we can not talk about it, as it will give bad dreams. She then told me in english, that the boys had left Israel and all the pressure there, and that they shouldn't be reminded of it here.
Well, the boys continued talking, and I didn't tell them to stop, I just didn't respond in order not to annoy the mother. Though she still blamed me.
Since then I have been wondering, is it wrong talking about this stuff with small childen? I mean, these boys clearly know what is going on, and as stated above they have had some bad experiences which they wanted to get out. But then again, was it wrong of me, for even going near the subject? At the time I didn't think of that at all, only about the fact that we went to the same places and so. Then the mall got up in conversation, and I asked if they still went... I didn't intend to get into that subject, but we did. Should i have skipped subject immdeately?
Do any of you guys believe that there are political (in this case terror and suicide bombers) issues/subjects which are not suitable for kids to hear about?
I sat next to these small boys, one was 6-7 and the other 8-9 years old, who were both from Israel (the mother of the small one was also sitting in the near).
Started talking with the "bigger" one out of them, and found out that he lives quite near my uncle in Israel, so I started talking with him about different places in the near of them... Then I asked him, if he still went to the mall which is nearby?
He didn't even answer my question before he started telling me about a carbomb he had seen, and a bomb near the school etc. I let him talk, and asked questions, as he obviously needed to get it all out.
The other little boy then started talking about some other bombs and the WTC and so. Then the mother interferes and says that we can not talk about it, as it will give bad dreams. She then told me in english, that the boys had left Israel and all the pressure there, and that they shouldn't be reminded of it here.
Well, the boys continued talking, and I didn't tell them to stop, I just didn't respond in order not to annoy the mother. Though she still blamed me.
Since then I have been wondering, is it wrong talking about this stuff with small childen? I mean, these boys clearly know what is going on, and as stated above they have had some bad experiences which they wanted to get out. But then again, was it wrong of me, for even going near the subject? At the time I didn't think of that at all, only about the fact that we went to the same places and so. Then the mall got up in conversation, and I asked if they still went... I didn't intend to get into that subject, but we did. Should i have skipped subject immdeately?
Do any of you guys believe that there are political (in this case terror and suicide bombers) issues/subjects which are not suitable for kids to hear about?
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Comments
Besides, even if there were prevented from talking about it, they will never get those things out of their heads and will always be thinking about them. Always better to talk about things than to keep them bottled up, especially with kids.
so yeah, i think you can talk to a young child about the wtc in nyc...but in an age-appropriate manner.
Just a couple of weeks before 9/11, driving by the WTC I was telling some of them that those are the tallest buildings in NYC. Some of them had been in one of the towers with me before, but never to the top. They doubted me about how high they were so I told them that when school went on vacation, perhaps we’d go to the top of the towers to prove it.
After 9/11 I wanted to know if they had made the connection between the buildings they saw in person and the ones they saw on TV. They didn’t.
After seeing the towers in our skyline for so long, to them, they were just some random buildings, just like my apartment building.
Living in an apartment, some of them were afraid to come to come to my home because there are always planes flying above and they were scared that one of them may crash into the apartment building. One of the children, after asking me how I got to her house, after responding by train she asked me if I wasn’t scared that I’d catch “Amtraks.”
After speaking to them, I got very interesting responses and thought that I was doing a good thing by letting them speak their minds. Particularly with the children who were terrified, I wanted to let their parents know how they felt incase they didn’t know already.
Most of the parents were like, “Yeah, I know, they told me” blah, blah, blah. One of the parents shocked me by getting very defensive saying, “She’s not stupid, she knows that it’s anthrax not Amtraks” etc. Instead of paying attention to the fact that every time her daughter entered a tall building, she was petrified, the mother was caught up on her daughter’s pronunciation of anthrax. As I was saying how afraid she is, the lady was on the verge of yelling at me like why are you asking my children these questions. You know, as if by asking her questions, I was exposing her to something she wasn’t exposed to—yet, she kept saying that her daughter understands everything that was going on.
Different parents have different views, but I found that the ones who spoke about the issue had children who were a lot less scared.
I think parents should expose their children to the political world around them. It is better when the parents expose them and break things down for them so that they could understand rather than have the child learn from the evening news and not quite being able to comprehend what is going on.
Yeah, its always better to bring children up to be ignorant isn't it? :rolleyes:
We need to educate our children about the real world, and I try to do this with mine. Sure you have to use language which they understand, and try to explain to them what is going on without too much bias. But, I'd rather that my boys learned from me, than from some nut out to emphasise his squewed view of the world, teaching them to hate.
Besides, children aren't stupid. They'll work much of it out for themselves anyway.
Gee... my name (or a misspelled version of it) comes up even when I had not commented upon a thread. :rolleyes:
I rather doubt that "car bombs" have been employed by US forces against the Taliban. Not exactly how we do things...
No, you're far more obvious....:rolleyes:
I whole heartedly agree that kids should be told about these things, becasue if they're not told about them, and encouraged to discuss them, they wont ever get to the stage where they can make their own opinions...
bringing me onto :
How can one tell the children about these things and explain them satisfactorally without biasing their opinions on the matter with ones own opinions of the situation.
This is the argument for leaving complex issues aside until the children (people) are old enough to make their own minds up, or at least not be so infuenced by the person telling them.
Some things are too important to accept at a given face value.
You should prefer sending them trillions of dollars, attempting to bribe them into "playing nice"? Would follow form with your "society"... highest crime rate, least number serving sentences for their miscreant deeds... :rolleyes:
Would appear that reality was hidden away from many of YOU, not only as younger children, but that you are still too immature to comprehend such complex issues as your people being murdered...
YOU define the need to grow up.
This forum would be prima facie that that would be the "Brit" way of things...
If they are old enough to ask the question, then they are old enough to be told they answer, with emotional and mental maturity factored into the nature of the answer given...