Last week was a very sad and devastating week for many people in Paris and Beirut. The media was full of distressing images and stories.
Photo of Lebanese flag: Abdallah Kheir Flickr Photo of French flag: Anthony 040 Flickr
How Do We Explain These Events to Our Children? How Do We Calm the Political Attacks Anxiety?
Whenever there’s distressing news, it’s important to see how impacted your children have been. You can do this by asking them what they know. This gives you a starting point and opens up the conversation. As your children tell you what they’ve seen and/or what they’ve heard, you can then figure out where they might be feeling confused or frightened.
It’s important to tell them the truth but only give them the details that they need to know, according to their age and stage of development. Especially when there’s been a tragedy in the world, it is important to be vigilant about what images come into your home. It may be tempting to leave the television on in the background, but we have no idea what can pop up on the screen and then leave a disturbed image on a child’s mind.
It’s important that our children still feel safe in the world. We need to explain to them that these kind of acts are rare and that the chances of this happening in our home town are very small. Millions of people have viewed this touching heartfelt interview (1.5 mins.) of a French father explaining the Paris acts of violence to his young son as his son tries to make sense of it all.
This father expresses a very important message which is that the bad guys may have guns but we have flowers. The young boy interprets this as the flowers and candles providing protection.
When these kind of atrocities occur, we may feel helpless, but there is something that we can do. We can put more love in the world. We can reach out and support the victims of these tragedies and closer to home, we can put our love into action. At this time of year, this may be putting together a holiday hamper for a family less fortunate, or baking some sweet treats for a local shelter. We can make a difference by being more loving, showing love for everyone and sharing our gratitude for everything we have every day.
We can also use these wise words from Mahatama Ghandi:
Click the following link to print Ghandi’s quote about humanity and this photo.
As Leila Janah says “You don’t have to accept the world for what it is, but you can mold it into what you think it could be” and to me this all starts right from our homes,
Warmly,
PS. With many thanks to Tracey, I have a great gift for Vancouver families – a Festive Flair guide to all the festive celebrations happening in the lower mainland of Vancouver over the next few weeks: Festive Flair 2015 holidays It’s an amazing guide!
PPS. Registration for my next round of anxiety groups is open. They start in January 2016. The 7-9 yrs. group is full (you can put your name on the waiting list) and there are still spaces in the 10-12 year old group. Children learn about anxiety and anxiety management strategies in a fun, small group. For more information and to register online, please click here.
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