Blog

Should we or should we not explain to our children what's going on in our world?

Posted on 2011-12-17

We live in turbulent times and face serious issues. The bad news seems to never end with protests in many countries against ruling regimes, monetary crises across the world and world hunger to name but a few of today's problems. How do we face up to these issues and what is our modus operandi in tackling discussions with the most important part of society - our children?

In this month's blog we explore how we react and communicate with our children when we observe events that are happening in the world. For example:

Insecurity: thousands of people have died in protests and civil wars in countries such as Syria, Egypt, Libya and Iraq to name but a few

Economic: the financial crisis continues to destabilise countries and companies, which has an impact on our lives and families. We hear about nationwide austerity plans and some companies seem to cut their workforce almost daily

When the media presents violent or shocking images of famine or war what should we, as parents, do?

Many people have tendency to hide these images because they want to protect their children, this is a possible decision. Will it really help?

Should we let children see the reports and talk about the problems and what the outcomes could be? Do we ask their opinions to discover what they think? Will it be better to tell the truth and explain what's happening? This is another possible decision.

So how do we prepare the next generation to face these new challenges? After all, they will be living with these problems for far longer than we will.

The Christmas holiday period is a traditional time to reflect and think about New Year resolutions. So could this be a good opportunity to think about our approach to these matters? Should we or should we not explain to our children what's going on?

Please share your experiences and thoughts with us!

Thank you for your deep-felt comments and suggestions on the hunger blog of last month. If we each make individual efforts to reduce this problem, our small personal endeavours mount up to make a collective big difference, it will be our drop of water and many drops will do the difference!

As this is the last blog of 2011, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a peaceful, healthy and happy New Year.

This blog is written in collaboration with Abigail Shone.

This post is related to:

5 comments

Add a comment [+]
Mayi
Sent by Mayi on 2012-01-29
Al realizar la pregunta de este blog a mis hijas, no dudaron en responder que para ellas es importante conocer como está el mundo y sobre todo, piden la explicación del por qué ocurre, lo que me hace recapacitar si soy capaz de darles una explicación lo suficientemente clara de los motivos e incluso que empiecen a tener sus propios puntos de vistas.
Pero no todo lo que ven ni todo lo que ocurre es negativo, aprovecho también cualquier acontecimiento agradable para que sepan que el mundo es maravilloso.
Enseñémosles a ser felices.
Romy
Sent by Romy on 2012-01-13
The first intention as parent is to keep our children away of those terrible news, but that is the world we have and it is better to get them ready to face those matters.

In my opinion parents should talk with the children about these issues, explaining the subjects, but not imposing our views. We should let them talk and express what they think about. As parent we run the risk of instruct instead of inform our children.

Daisy
Sent by Daisy on 2012-01-04
I think that even if the parents want to do so, it is more and more difficult to hide the current problems to their children.
They only have to turn on the television, to read newspapers or to go on Internet to be put in front of all the terrible events happening all over the world every day.
Danger can come from the way they interpret these subjects. Of course they can be shocked and scared…
The role of the parents, in my opinion, is to speak about those matters openly with their children and to prepare them to face the problems of the life.

Happy New Year to all of you !
Mike
Sent by Mike on 2011-12-24
I understand the options and I prefer to open the reality to their eyes rather than letting them to continue thinking that eveything is beautiful...thanks again. Mike
Jeanne
Sent by Jeanne on 2011-12-22
It’s so true that we are surrounded by bad news; it seems that the future or at least next year will be not easy. As parent, I want to protect my children; I don’t want to expose them to bad news or shocking images. But the truth is that I can only help them by giving them the right approaches that they can face difficulties of live, I can’t be behind them for ever, they need to grow and overcome the issues themselves. Maybe the earlier I raise them awareness about what’s going on in the world, better I equip them to face it. I like your blog although it’s not easy to admit my behaviours as a parent.

Send your comment

(All fields are mandatory)