Yesterday I collected a very teary Princess from school - it transpires she may play C team netball this year (which truly I am as proud of as if she would have played A team - to us it is about doing your best and participating). It is difficult to help them through the learning curve of competitive sport but it is a great analogy for life in general. I dealt with it with exactly the attitude I described above and hope that it helps. Without doubt there will be more tears today or tomorrow when the teams get announced.
But that was not all. Then she said she heard that an 8 year old boy (her exact age) died in a bomb explosion in America at a marathon. Yes, even at the back end of the world in South Africa we are deeply touched with the Boston bombings.She cried a bit about this too - which possibly was just an extension of the previous tears but then inevitably the questions come. "Who did this?""Why do people do things like this?" "Are they bad people? "And the most difficult one of all "Why does God allow people to do horrible things like this?" Luckily for me these are easier to answer than the questions she asked in 2011 about the Tsunamis and earthquakes in Japan. It's easier to deal with bad people than trying to explain why God allows natural disasters.
We have always tried to shield our children from the worst horrors in the news of the day but at some age they have to hear it. From grade 1 current news is discussed in the class. They have to learn how to keep an ear on current affairs and know what is happening around them. The difficult part is explaining and helping them deal with this crazy world we are living in. Really I am not sure I am always doing it as well as one should. I do feel that I dealt with the Boston story as well as I could yesterday. I think she worked through it in her mind.
But I do expect a fresh flow of tears about it concurrent with the netball news. But I guess that is how we as woman are wired in any event.
My question to you is how do you deal with the horrors of the world around us or are planning to deal with it? And with competitive sport?
(BTW - I have last week's (week 15) Project Life post up here)
Ai, not easy being a parent and having to explain they why's and wherefores. I myself am struggling to make sense of the Boston bombings, such a senseless tragedy.
ReplyDeleteAnd as for the C versus A team - perhaps this is where she needs to focus on hockey rather? she loved the clinic didn't she? Perhaps this is your out for her! sterkte my friend xx
We actually insist that she complete the year - the school is a top netball school and has to have 3 teams. She also need to realize that she can move up and imporve her game
DeleteSjoe. It's hard. I deal with it by being as truthful and as age appropriate as possible. I find that the questions become more difficult to answer as they get older. Poor little thing.
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Very difficult issue. We don't even know how to deal with it ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI try to see as little news as possible. Because of the different types of media we have now- the terrible events are so overwhelming that i really think we should be careful how much negative media we let into into our day.
In SA we tend to only get the bad, horrible news and not the good that is also out there.
On the other hand, we do need to discuss these things with our children.
Is she feeling better today?
I am NOT looking forward to that...He's only 3 but the questions he asks sometimes are beyond me... I try to shield him but you should here the things they discuss at nursery school... I've decided we call a spade a spade and just be truthful.
ReplyDeleteHope she feels better soon...
Right now, current events aren't a hot topic at our house (yet). I think how i would approach it would be to just emphasize that some people do bad things sometimes that hurt other people, even though they might think it's right when it's actually wrong. Also I'd like to stress the fact that two wrongs don't make a right...how to go about doing that is the real question.
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
We haven't really had to explain any of this to our kids yet beyond the passing of our beloved Labby, but I guess it is inevitable :(
ReplyDeleteUgh...I have no idea how to answer these questions as we haven't had to yet. I'm not looking forward to that when i can't make sense of it myself!
ReplyDeleteIt's a scary scary world we live in. Even I battle may times to understand man's inhumanity to man.
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