# Should children be shielded from morbid subjects? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 11, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999 "2026-09-11T19:24:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/41 "2026-09-12T21:19:54Z")
As a somewhat veteran parent (15 year old and 12 year old), I think the trick is in the level of detail. It’s one thing to tell your kids about bad/scary stuff, but it’s another to delve into the gory details. That usually takes it from something that’s potentially scary, but that’s been handled, into something terrifying. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2026, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/42 "2026-09-12T22:26:03Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > America wasn’t all happy and carefree before that day, so I wouldn’t tell him that. Happy and carefree no, but I was 18 when 9/11 happened and it changed a lot for me and a lot of other people, and I feel like I can draw a straight line from that event to the place we are now. (And maybe that’s true of all historical events, but where we are now is not good, so it seems particularly salient.) I view it as a tragedy with profound ripple effects. Maybe for older people who had already experienced the traumatic upheaval of the 60s it was easier to roll with, but some of us were babies. I was born in 1983. Nothing like that had ever happened in my experience. I knew absolutely nothing about US foreign policy. I was in my first or second week of college. I was old enough to understand what was happening, but so politically naive. That moment was my political awakening. I do eventually want to get into that with him, but I don’t think he’s ready to follow it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/43 "2026-09-13T06:12:39Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I did tell him all about the helpers That made me think of Mr. Rogers. He talked about looking for the helpers on the first anniversary of the attacks. And I think his show did a really good job of covering some sometimes grim topics in a way kids could understand. I wonder if your kid would enjoy watching him. ---
**Author:** ![Larsedik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larsedik/32/19832_2.png) [@Larsedik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larsedik)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/44 "2026-09-13T12:08:31Z")
Where did this happen? Shark attacks are common in Florida but rarely fatal. Are you in Australia? ---
**Author:** ![Larsedik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larsedik/32/19832_2.png) [@Larsedik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larsedik)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/45 "2026-09-13T12:21:05Z")
As a teenager, I was traumatized by seeing bloody reports of the Vietnam War, which made it difficult for me to sleep at night and gave me nightmares. I do not think your kid would have this problem, however, In general, it is best to give honest and truthful answers to questions that children have. I was lied to about sex when I was a child, and I resented this very much by the time I was 10. My parents told me that a woman could have a child by going to the doctor and telling him that she wanted one - the father was not required and played no part. I learned the real truth on the playground at school when I was 10, and this was also traumatic to me, but it would not have been if my parents had not lied to me. When I was 12, my father asked me if I wanted to know where babies came from, and I told him no - it was way too late for that discussion. I reached puberty when I was 10 and had to start shaving when I was in the fifth grade. Technically, I could have been a father by the time I was 11. I remember having a bit of a fascination with cannibalism when I was a child - mainly because I was curious about what people would taste like - I think it is pork, but I’m still not sure. I visited Fiji about 8 years ago and bought a cannibal club while there and also saw a cannibal exhibit in San Diego about a year later at The Museum of Man in Balboa Park. When I was 8, the song “Purple People Eater” was popular, and that’s what gave me the curiosity at the time about cannibalism. It could be a common childish curiosity - I grew out of it quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2026, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/46 "2026-09-13T15:55:03Z")
> [@Larsedik](#): > > Where did this happen? Shark attacks are common in Florida but rarely fatal. Are you in Australia? It was a joke. Growing up, I was never in any location where it was common to lose 2-3 kids a year to anything. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/47 "2026-09-14T13:43:11Z")
When I taught 2nd grade in 2007-2012, I honored 9/11 by reading [The Man Who Walked Between the Towers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Walked_Between_the_Towers) to my class. It’s the beautiful true story about Phillip Petit, the rascally French circus performer who managed, one night, to string a tightrope between the under-construction Twin Towers, and to dance along it the next morning, to the astonishment and delight of commuters. After telling his story, the final pages say something like, “The towers are no longer there, but people remember this story and many others.” Students would always ask, “What happened to the towers?” and it’d be a lead-in to talking about 9/11. I liked using this approach because it contextualized the attacks as a thing of sadness and loss, not as an event from a thriller. I could discuss it in age-appropriate terms. As for the larger subject, my own kids were pretty morbid and wanted to know all sorts of stuff, except when they didn’t: my youngest loves hearing about violence, but is super freaked out by disease. For me, I think it’s most important to follow the kids’ lead. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2026, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/48 "2026-09-14T22:36:29Z")
I was off work the day the Hudson River plane crash happened, and watched this documentary via Netflix DVD earlier in the afternoon. I turned off the TV and turned on “All Things Considered” which led with this story. I turned the TV back on and muted it, and they were showing all those people standing on the wings of the plane, which was floating in the river. This happened right before I started 6th grade, so it competed with Richard Nixon’s resignation as the biggest news story of the time. > **[Man On Wire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hitn_ffd9kM%2F)** > > On August 7, 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out on a wire illegally rigged between the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York. Af... ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 9:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/49 "2026-09-15T09:44:44Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I’ve seen little boys use all manner of little objects as cars and go “vroom-vroom” while pushing it along a surface. . . . and then immediately start playing smash 'em up derby with them. . . IME ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/50 "2026-09-15T14:45:35Z")
Yes! I was actually super into toy cars myself as a child, and used to pretend I was a motorcycle cop with an imaginary gun and everything. But in addition to blowing things up I would stage elaborate dramas with the cars, usually they would fall in love and get married. I now write action romance. I guess I was born to do it. 😂 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/51 "2026-09-15T14:50:14Z")
I wish I had been shielded. I learned about Nazi death camps and the… medical ‘experiments’ when i was 11 years old. I was working with a landscaping crew. Good guys, but a bit graphic. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2026, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/52 "2026-09-15T14:57:46Z")
We got that spiel in 8th grade history, complete with pictures of maimed torture victims, and it was pretty scarring. But it’s also really important and I kind of think it should be scarring. I don’t know that it would be less so had I learned as an adult. There are still things like this that scare the pants off me. My son once said to me, “I don’t want to die,” and I replied, “Me either. It’s pretty scary to think about. But it happens to everyone so we just have to learn to make our peace with it.” Maybe not the platitude some would give. We’re not religious so I couldn’t really give the afterlife pitch. “What happens?” “Nobody knows. But probably it’s just your brain stops working.” ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/53 "2026-09-18T23:37:25Z")
Overall you’ve demonstrated a lot of parental wisdom in this thread. A _lot_. But … > [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I knew absolutely nothing about US foreign policy. I was in my first or second week of college. I was old enough to understand what was happening, but so politically naive. That moment was my political awakening. > > I do eventually want to get into that with him, but I don’t think he’s ready to follow it. If you were barely ready at 18, good bet he’s far from ready at 6. 😁 I was a very precocious kid. But, like every kid, profoundly ignorant of so very much about the world. I knew what I knew, and was proud of that. But like Rumsfeld’s unknown unknowns, there were vast tracts of knowledge I didn’t even know existed, much less what was knowable in those areas. Don’t mistake your son’s high points, high and admirable and amazing as they are, for the much wider but shallower knowledge of the world needed to make sense of inherently wide topics. Like politics or international affairs. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/54 "2026-09-19T17:17:26Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But like Rumsfeld’s unknown unknowns, there were vast tracts of knowledge I didn’t even know existed, much less what was knowable in those areas. I remember people in my camp making fun of Rumsfeld when he said that, but the other day I was thinking about that quote. That man was talking sense. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2026, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999/55 "2026-09-19T19:21:25Z")
I’m no fan of Rumsfeld’s politics. But he was a very smart, educated, and deeply thinking dude. Who took his job managing our Dept of Defense very seriously. His comments that day were an example of a smart man talking to a stupid country. The fact much of our country sees no problem in the daily stupid pronouncements of later politicians only serves to cement my dismal assessment of my countrymen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-children-be-shielded-from-morbid-subjects/1032999.md?page=2)