Seems like I spend more of my time talking to my family than just about anyone else, so I’ll post another Talking to your kids about thread.
This morning, before I left home for work, Mrs D and I were reading the paper and drinking coffee in the kitchen, and we were joined by the 2 teenagers eating breakfast. The 13-year old asked why we appeared bent on attacking Iraq. Have you had any discussions on the topic with your kids recently?
Ms D and I told the kids that we had not yet heard a good explanation for that, and that we were ashamed of this action by our government. We said it was scary if we were going to set a precedent of invading countries pre-emptively - and described the containment which had apparently worked sufficiently over the past decade, and discussed the absence of linkage to 9/11. We reminded them that they haven’t seen the flag flying out frony of the house recently, as it had consistently over previous years.
Just wondering - those of you who have kids, how much have you talked about this to your kids, how old are they, and what did you say. Not limited to Americans.
Hey, speak of the devil! I think I just saw President Bush. Just saw a string of helicopters fly into Meigs Field, and I recall he was scheduled to speak somewhere in Chicago today.
Can’t say what I’d say, as I don’t have kids, but I truly respect my father for not expressing opinion when talking to me about politics/war when I was a kid. Even at the height of IRA terrorism in London in the '70s, he explained both sides of the political argument, why the terrorists felt they were justified in their actions, why the British army felt it was justified in its actions, and let me make up my own mind.
So right off the bat you make me glad I posted this.
I’m interested in hearing if anyone else thinks that it is desireable to not inform your kids of your opinions on politics/war.
How broadly do you define these categories?
Any exceptions?
I am not certain that informing my kids of my opinions, and explaining the reasons for that opinion, and acknowledging that other people disagree, interferes with my kids making up their their own minds.
And on this issue, I really have not encountered a sensible explanation/justification/need for attacking Iraq, so I am hard pressed to present one to my kids.
When I was child, my mother would tell me the facts of a politcal situation, and ask my opinion on it. Only then would she tell me what she thought. Then we would discuss and debate the subject. This was our standard dinner-time conversation from when I was just barely old enough to make some kind of sense of things (maybe, say, eight).
She raised a kid with a pretty healthy interest in politics and a pretty soild background in debate.
My brother had to say goodbye to my son last night. He (my brother, not my son!) is being sent to Afghanistan for a tour (he is a Green Beret). The Forward Operating Bases there take fire almost daily.
My son is only 3 but he knows Uncle Chuck won’t be back for a long time (probably 9 months to a year). I have told him that his uncle is a soldier and his job involves both protecting people and helping to stop bad people, kind of like police.