Not saying I want them to see bad things...
I was watching "Bones" tonight and in the very beginning of the episode there was an explosion of a woman in her minivan. The explosion occurred while she was at a park watching kids play soccer. When the van exploded, the parents ran and covered the eyes of the kids.
Is this the best course of action? Won't the kids merely invent filler to explain what they missed seeing? Won't that filler be worse? Yet, at the same time, a leg went flying in that explosion. Do those kids really need to relive that in their memories for years to come?
My sister's friend died after sustaining a head injury on a ski trip. While my niece was not there to experience his subsequent seizure, she was witness to his hospital stay during which he never came out of his coma. She was 8 or 9 years old. She spent a lot of time contemplating his death and it changed her to a degree.
I wonder how much we need to shelter our children. I wonder how much they should see. I truly believe that having their parents there to discuss the brutalities of the world, kids have the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of what life truly is. While no one wants their kids to see the cruel realities before they need to, it also makes no sense to constantly cover their eyes and never show them how to deal with that pain.
I suppose I would rather have experienced my first true exposure to the cruelties of reality with my mom there to help me understand it and deal with it. I can't imagine how difficult life would be having to figure that aspect of life out all by myself.
Is this the best course of action? Won't the kids merely invent filler to explain what they missed seeing? Won't that filler be worse? Yet, at the same time, a leg went flying in that explosion. Do those kids really need to relive that in their memories for years to come?
My sister's friend died after sustaining a head injury on a ski trip. While my niece was not there to experience his subsequent seizure, she was witness to his hospital stay during which he never came out of his coma. She was 8 or 9 years old. She spent a lot of time contemplating his death and it changed her to a degree.
I wonder how much we need to shelter our children. I wonder how much they should see. I truly believe that having their parents there to discuss the brutalities of the world, kids have the opportunity to get a deeper understanding of what life truly is. While no one wants their kids to see the cruel realities before they need to, it also makes no sense to constantly cover their eyes and never show them how to deal with that pain.
I suppose I would rather have experienced my first true exposure to the cruelties of reality with my mom there to help me understand it and deal with it. I can't imagine how difficult life would be having to figure that aspect of life out all by myself.
Buggie spilled her guts for you at 10/02/2007 10:34:00 PM
2 Comments:
What a thought provoking post. I don't think my first avenue of expression would be to cover the children's eyes. I think I would have grabbed them up and ran.
Well, gruesome, dehumanizing, traumatic stuff I can understand. What I don't agree with is "sheltering" children from any knowledge of sexuality or even naughty words, while having no problem with violence, if that makes any sense.
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