I Don't Know How To Parent This One

So…..my kids were not around for 9/11. I can remember sitting in my now husband’s college room, watching the late news on Channel 10, when all of a sudden the breaking news of the first aeroplane came streaming across the screen. As we watched, the second plane came across the screen in the distance and crashed, live, into the second tower. I rang everyone I could. My parents, my sister, my friend…..telling them all, in panic, to turn on their TVs.

I was 20.

I was 20 and I couldn’t fathom what was happening.

How on earth do I explain this latest attack to my kids? Twelve and seven.

It’s everywhere. And Miss Twelve especially, wants to understand.

How do I sit my twelve year old down and explain that there is no reasoning?

How do I sit my twelve year old down and explain that these people were just like us? Going to music concerts in a theatre just like we did at the Capitol 6 weeks ago.

How do I sit my twelve year old down and convince her that terrorists aren’t coming to our little town?

How, at twelve years old, can we expect our kids to see this horror on the TV every time we turn it on and know how to explain it to them?

There is no hiding it? It’s not like when we were young and our parents could keep the goings on outside our little town, a big secret from us. Protecting our little minds from the horrors that were happening on the news.

Now…..it’s everywhere. And I feel like I can’t protect her little mind from it all.

I don’t know how to parent this one.

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