A post on the WSJ Juggle blog brought up an issue that’s been troubling me since 9/11, and even more since I found out about Virginia Tech.
I try to keep my child away from the news, especially the TV news. It’s getting harder since she’s 11 now, but I’m still glad I’m doing it.
I consider myself lucky that she was just about to turn 6 when the World Trade Center was attacked and destroyed. Living in NYC, it was hard for her not to be aware that something had happened, but we kept her away from the repeated images displayed on TV and in the papers, and tried to keep ourselves emotionally centered so that she wouldn’t pick up on the terror we felt. If she had been just a year older, there would have been many questions that I couldn’t have answered for her, questions that were too hard to answer, even for myself.
And yes, from time to time questions still come up about 9/11. From our conversations about it in recent months, I have realized that she was perhaps more aware of what had happened than I thought she was, but didn’t have the same sense of horror about it. Now we can speak about it without charge, as something that happened in history as it were.
This week, we are faced with another tragedy: Virginia Tech, the worst shooting spree in our country’s history. A senseless loss of 32 lives. A horror beyond belief. My hearts go out to the victims, families and friends of those lost.
And I know, that sometime over the next few days, she will find out about it. And when she does there will be questions. Questions that even I, her parent won’t know how to answer…
So what will I do? I’ll answer the questions she asks as best as I can. I’ll try to reassure her that these types of things are very rare. I’ll let her know I’m here if she wants to talk more…
How are you handling it with your kids? Please join in on the conversation either here or at the juggle. (read their entire post here)
-Susan Martin
