parenting and history

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/04/first-the-bad-news
"Bad Time Stories"
by Judith Warner
December 4, 2008
The New York Times

The author discusses discussing awful things with her young (9 or so) daughter, such as 9/11, the Holocaust, Hitler, Mumbai, the economic crisis, the trampling at Wal-Mart, etc. Warner isn't particularly eager to share these things with her daughter, as she doesn't want those sort of images in her daughter's mind - images of boxcars full of people, of the smoke of human bodies rising into the air.

While a lot depends on the specifics of the case (e.g. the age and maturity of the child), I'm not sure that Warner is right to try and hide these things from her daughter - especially as her daughter is actively pursuing them. Maybe it would be good if, when we watched the news and read about Sudan, to have that kind of image in our minds. Awful things happen, and we need to be able (we need to raise our children to be able) to respond responsibly to them.

Some of this comes of my belief that people are often capable of what they are believed to be capable of. It is good to expect more of others - and ourselves. (Or, from a different perspective, perhaps it is more for Warner's comfort than her daughter's that Warner tries to shield her from these things).