As someone who reads newspapers every morning, and sometimes watches Breakfast TV when she can wrestle the remote away from the 4 year old and Peppa Pig, it’s inevitable the 8 year old is starting to take an interest in the news and what is going on in the world.
As a huge football fan (seriously, the child’s obsessed!) he picks up the newspaper and takes out the sports section to have a good read.
He also puts on Teletext when he gets up in a morning to look at the sports results and fixtures.
So it’s only inevitable that he’s picked up on the fact some overpaid, idiotic neanderthal footballers have been in trouble for racist behaviour lately.
Cue him saying:
” *Footballer* is in court for racist. What does that mean?”
In which I had to explain that sometimes people are mean to each other just because of the colour of their skin, which is ridiculous as underneath we’re all the same.
He completely agreed. Phew. One question I managed to answer successfully.
He also reads the front page headlines when I’m reading the newspaper.
“Who’s Abu Qatada?!”
That one was a bit harder to answer without traumatizing him.
As much as you want to shield the news from them as it’s a horrible world out there, there comes a time when you’re going to get the inquisitive little blighters asking a million and one questions you don’t really want to have to answer yet.
I don’t want him to know that there are people out there who are intent on destroying others.
He was watching Home Alone the other day and was in awe at how huge the big building was (Twin Towers.)
I didn’t mention that people had blown it up. On purpose. How could I?! Even I can’t make sense of it, let alone a child.
I don’t want him to know that the footballers he looks up to and hero worships are knuckle dragging cave men who should be dragged back to their mud hut and squashed under a big rock.
They can’t go round living in a bubble though. They get older, and they’re going to realise that it’s not all fluffy bunny rabbits and nasty things can happen out there.
It would be great if they could though. Now where’s my rose-tinted specs, it might make it all look a bit more sunshiney…..
Its really hard – I want my kids to grow up being aware that there are people who need help in the world, but how to do it without traumatising them? My friend’s 4 year old (who hasn’t seen TV news, only heard it on the radio) announced the other day that he was going to “get a knife and kill himself”. They pick up on everything.
That’s been bothering me too. My nine-year old is fascinated by the news, the gorier the better. She has a homing instinct for carnage when peering over my shoulder at the paper or happening upon the Today programme. She has absorbed thus all about Syria, about Abu Qatada, about the Japanese tsunami and about the phone hacking. I was initially troubled by this, then thought better that she finds out about the wider world gradually and via my cautious explanations, than be plunged shocked into the deep end at secondary school.
We home educated our boy, and went for full disclosure of anything shown before his bed time, and made it a subject for discussion. His response to why people were killing each other for greed/racial issues/traditional rivalries [this was back during the Balkan wars] was considered and succinct.
Grown ups are stupid.
Couldn’t put it better myself.
What a wise boy you have, completely agree with him there!
Difficult one. Many years ago we were in London when the bomb went off in Harrods – streets full of bleeding, screaming people. We were unhurt, but 7-year old realised it could have been us, while 5 year-old had no idea what the fuss was about. I asked 7 year-old’s teacher to help her – she’s watched the news avidly ever since.
I think you’re right Wendy, we need to help them learn and understand. But we also have to judge when to shield them don’t we? I try to be as open with my two as possible, but there are times when I turn down the radio news or turn over because I don’t want their childhood tainted by all the misery, and I don’t want them getting scared. It’s a toughie and I guess we all use our own judgement in the end.
Think that’s it. It’s a case of deciding how much it is appropriate for them to know, and to also know how to arm them with the facts without scaring the pants off them in the process which is the hard bit! 🙂
My daughter is only 4 months old, but you’ve got me thinking about this issue. My husband and I don’t watch tv. We stay informed by reading the news online. We have some local papers delivered involuntarily, but I’ll have read them online too by the time they reach us. So they’re basically used to wrap food waste really. I play children’s songs and cartoons for her on YouTube. I’ve created a playlist with loads of videos she can watch when I’m doing housework. Your home is the only place where you can control the information your children receive and as you’ve learned, you have no control if the tv is on.
very thought provoking. It’s sad how the news channels are always so full of the sadness going around and some of the visuals don’t help either. When we were kids I remember we had to read aloud a section from the newspaper. Every weekend when I ask my daughter to read… I have to first review the section.
Glad to have found you at the hop. Your first GFC follower and a regular visitor now.
cheers,
Kajal@ http://purplechronicle.blogspot.com/
The amount of sadness in the news does make you wary when exposing your children to it, doesn’t it? Good idea about vetting the paper first, mine roots it out to scour for football stuff, which makes it harder – might have to start hiding it lol! 🙂
Thanks for visiting x