No matter how much you try to protect your children from some ugly facts of life, unless you keep them under a rock or hover over them 24/7, some outside influence will tell them something their young ears probably aren’t equipped to hear.
So, what do you do? Quit your job to home school them? Hmm, not an option for me. Not to mention, I’d be a bad mom-teacher when it came to things like math.
While it sometimes pains me to learn that my babies have learned something wretched, I’ve come to embrace the discussion points behind it and talk about why the * insert bad thing* is a * insert bad thing.* Family values start at a young age, if you ask me.
Perfect example. (And this is mild, I admit!) We were at a restaurant eating dinner. The table next to us contained similarly-aged children, one of whom was behaving very badly, saying such things as “I hate you!” to his mother.
Admittedly, I felt comfort in my daughter’s horrified expression. I asked her in the car, “So what did you think of that boy who was sassing at his Mom?”
She replied, “That was not nice. You should NOT talk to your mom that way!”
She’s a really, really, REALLY good kid, but that doesn’t mean she NEVER sasses at me. It occurred to me that consistency is everything. My message every single time we have an “incident” of our own at home needs to be the same. It is not okay to talk to your mother like that. While it is acceptable to have a different opinion, always treat your family members with respect, not disdain.
She brings home stories from the (horrible, evil, but necessary) bus ride home. “So-and-so said he hates his sister. I told him, you’re LUCKY TO HAVE A SISTER, so be NICE to her!” Stories like this reinforce my system and make me proud that she’s learning a strong sense of family, even if she is from a broken home.
Generally, I think it’s better to point out and make an example of the bad than to try to pretend it doesn’t exist.
Of course, that can be tough when prime-time television announces the really hard to accept news, like the Caylee Anthony case.
It is never easy to explain to your child that the little girl she sees on television was murdered by her mother. It broke my heart the day she heard Caylee’s mother (allegedly) murdered her.
How do you find a healthy balance between the way you hope your child can grow up and some of the edge-case news stories? Or even those closer to home? I’d really like to hear.