Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Tragedy

I was checking out fun editorials to give my students for their last illustration assignment. I found a ton of stuff that happened this year that was outlandish, interesting, or fun. They are perfect for college student illustrations: A boy expelled from school for having a mohawk, a real petting zoo, we're talking lions, tigers and bears, a feather growing from a babies face and more. I have a total of 15 articles. I was trying to contain myself from laughing at some of the crazy editorials. In my search I came across the current news. The bombing of Boston. My oldest sister runs marathons, so immediately horrible pictures came to my mind.

I went home from work and Daddy asked why I looked like I just saw a ghost? I asked if he had seen the news? He hadn't, but heard something on the radio. At this point we didn't know how bad it was. I just knew 2 people were killed and 40 were injured.

We decided to go out to dinner at Sam and Louie's Pizza. The meat I had pulled for dinner was still frozen. In my wallet I had 2 free meal passes for the boys.

At the pizza place there were two TVs broadcasting the horror. Daddy looked at me, I looked at him, and then I asked the waitress if she would kindly switch the station.

She did, but she stood there for awhile trying to find something new to put on. I said, "Really you can put on anything. I just don't want my sons seeing the horrible tragedy." She said, "I understand. It's just that I have to have sports or news stations on. On both of those types of stations they are covering what happened." She finally found something. In the mean time, Mica had seen a bomb go off. He laughed thinking it was fake.

It's not like I strive to hide things from my children. It's just that when something is too much for even me to understand, I don't want my children watching it.

Daddy and I hadn't even had a chance to talk about what had happened yet.

With the Sandy Hook tragedy we decided to talk to Mica. We kept it brief, asked where they go in their school for danger drills and asked if he had questions. He didn't ask anything. Then we told him if he did have questions to ask us. We mentioned not to talk about it at school because not all of his friend's parents would choose to talk to their kids. We chose to never talk to Isaak.

Isaak has been freaked out about death, rightly so. I just don't want him terrified about the topic even more.

My thoughts go out to everyone personally effected by the bombing that happened in Boston. 

Do you, or did you talk to your children about tragedies?

9 comments:

Leovi said...

Yes, about 25 years ago the terrorist group ETA did explode a car bomb at a supermarket near my home in Barcelona. There were 22 dead and many wounded. Luckily, my wife was saved because it was an hour before buying there. We were present at the scene after the attack and was scary to see the smoke coming from the building.

Maryann D. said...

It seems like every few months there is a horrific, tragedy going on somewhere. I would talk to my children about it if they do ask about it. But I do not think it is necessary for them to keep viewing it on television. It is hard enough for parents to understand let alone a young child.
twinkle at optonline dot net

Eat To Live said...

That was a horrble tragedy. I don't remember things like this happening when my Daughter was young

Alexis AKA MOM said...

First off that is crazy things you found.

I work for a company close to Boston (I live in wa state). So it happened when I was calling clients and they told me as it was breaking news. Such a horrible tragedy. I'm praying for all those families.

Theresa Mahoney said...

I kind of did talk to Allison about it. We had a horrible school threat here for Monday. Schools were being gratified with Sandi Hook references and our local police had tips that 20 students in 5 schools were targeted on getting shot. Security was high that day and I sent my kids. Allison was a bit nervous, but when she came home she said "I guess they got the wrong information. It wasn't the schools getting shot, it was the bombing in Boston." I passed that off as reasonable to her. I hate her being terrified to go to school, so I just let her run with that idea.

Veronica Lee said...

My eldest was about 4 when the 9/11 images appeared on tv while we were in the living room and I had to explain to him what was happening though I don't think he really understood.

mail4rosey said...

So many awful things are becoming the norm in society and it leaves that gut fear just under the surface of everything. Like Leovi said above you, you shouldn't have to be scared to go shopping, or like Theresa said, you shouldn't be scared to send your kids to school.

We talked to the older child about both incidents you've mentioned, but not the youngest.

~ Noelle said...

we did not talk to broxton about it... i figure there is enough sadness and stuff, i did not want to bring more for his little mind to try and comprehend...

Masshole Mommy said...

In a way, I am glad we were away while it was going on. I HATE that our kids have to be exposed to crap like this these days. I did tell my oldest, simply, what happened because I was afraid he was going to hear about it at school when he goes back tomorrow and I didn't want him to be caught off guard. So sad.

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