When Children Ask You About the News: Ways to Be Prepared

Will you be prepared when children ask you about the news?

This is an important question in light of the pervasive nature of news events on television. Your children don't read the newspaper, for example, but news stories which depict horrible human events can still interrupt cartoons and other children's programs.

Luckily, there are ways to be prepared when children ask you about the news.

Tell the Truth

When children ask you about the news, there is no reason to deny that what they've seen is quite likely a terrible event.

People in the world have different motives for the atrocities they commit, and you can be most prepared when children ask you about the news when you know all the facts of the situation.

Your goal should be to explain that news events aren't random, but can be explained as products of a violent world.

Share Your Feelings

When children ask you about the news, you should be prepared to offer your own opinions and feelings about the matter. They will understand the news events more clearly if they can see them from your perspective.

On an emotional level as well, sharing your feelings about the news will make children realize they aren't alone in their feelings of confusion or sorrow. The truth is that you both share in the news events as two people who live in the world.

Look for Signs of Concern

Even when children don't ask about the news in a verbal way, you can still be prepared to address the impact the news has on them. This happens once you learn to see the signs of concern in them.

If children don't ask you about the news, but you find them refusing to go to school after they've witnessed something about terrorism, for example, you can begin to take action.

Be Prepared with Reassuring Ideas

When children either ask you about the news or express concerns in nonverbal ways, you can be prepared with rational ideas that will hopefully reassure them. These are as follows:

1. Certain news events are isolated within the cultures of specific countries and won't impact the child in any direct way.

Religious wars, for example, aren't fought in the child's back yard.

2. There is a bad news bias. This means that the focus of news programs is generally on the negative upheaval of human events instead of human interest stories.

The number of successful airplane landings a day far exceeds the number of airplane crashes, for example.

In sum, you can be prepared when children ask you about the news by being open and direct, and by reassuring them that what they see on the news won't necessarily affect them in a personal way.