I heard my 2ND grader say something yesterday, that no mother/parent should ever have to hear.
"Mom, a man came in to my school and was going to shoot me"
How do you respond to that? When I heard him say that, in his clear little boy voice-- with absolutely no fear, no worry, off-handed like he would tell me that the car next to us was green--my heart felt like it was going to explode.
Why should my "little" 7 year old have to know about these things? Why can't he tell me about Ninja turtles and soccer or a million other things? Why does he have to know that people can get into schools and hurt children just like him? Why does he have to know that OTHER kids can bring things to school that can hurt him/other kids. Why does he have to live in a world where people take out their anger in a physical way? Why does he have to live in a world where parents have to worry about sending their kids (little or otherwise) to school knowing that they might not come home?
This is rambling, I know..but it's hard to make sense of it. I don't want my kids to live in fear of the world and everyone in it, but I don't want them "fearless" either. How do you strike the right balance?
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