Yesterday I had a few minutes that weren't sucked up by doing the dinner dishes or bathing toddlers, so I sat down to watch a news special about Haiti. (And the dinner dishes are still sitting in the kitchen sink and the toddlers didn't get bathed last night.)
Before long, Cameron and Ethan wandered in and watched with me. And this is when I had to start pausing the program every 90 seconds to answer the kids' questions, explain why the affected area needed soldiers, discuss malnutrition and infection, etc.
My kids have always been very interested in world events and I do my best to give them the explanations that they need in order to understand what's going on, and I've always been impressed with their understanding and maturity. But last night I suppose I gave too much information when Ethan asked, "But an earthquake could never happen here, right?"
Oh, contraire! Our house pretty much stradles a fault line, and tempts fate daily. I explained the science of an earthquake as best I could, pulling out of my dusty mind what tidbits had stuck with me from fifth grade. Then we went back to watching the latest reports from Haiti and The Dominican Republic.
Ethan laid his head on my shoulder and quietly began to cry. The guilt and remorse that then overtook me was pretty intense. I felt horrible for dishing out more reality than my six year old could handle. I rushed in with hugs and "don't worry"'s and tried to reassure him that if anything like that happened here, it would not be nearly as bad because we have food and water and doctors and plenty of medicine and our buildings are stronger and Daddy and I are here to protect you... It helped a little.
I looked over at Cameron to make sure he was ok. He was. But that was what I expected from the kid who checks out library books about frostbite and then wants to debate what tools might be used for amputation.
I sent both boys back to my room to watch cartoons, like normal kids should, and I made a mental note that when Ethan asks if we can watch something else, it might be for reasons other than his love of Star Wars.
While we're on the parenting subject, if you haven't already, peek over at my other place and leave a comment on the subject of replacement parents. It's really making me think!
2 comments:
We had a similar conversation with our kids last night at dinner, but it went more in the direction of emergency preparedness and last days kind of stuff, because that's what us parents were discussing when the kids jumped in with questions! We did our best to reassure them that if we were prepared and tried to obey the Lord, then we would be ok. Then after dinner we did scripture study and what do you know? The whole chapter was about the Second Coming and promises from the Lord that He would protect those who had faith in Him. How fortuitous! I was pretty grateful, and they seemed to feel better.
Poor Ethan! He sounds very sensitive to these types of things, but I think it's good that you are talking to them about this stuff. Nothing is worse than being a kid who understands just enough to be terrified, but not enough to know that everything will be okay. It's good that he has you to reassure him!
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