What will you tell your kids about all of this stuff?

[NanceXToo]

So those of you who have kids who are old enough to hear the talk going on in your home or neighborhood and require some sort of summary or explanation....

 

...what will you say to them? How will you explain/sum it up?

 

Wondering what I'm going to tell my 10 y/o daughter today before she starts hearing all the neighborhood kids talking about Osama being dead.

[....]

Everyone in my family (including me and my husband) is currently or has been in the military, so my kids probably hear a lot more than they should. I think my 9 yro will get online later today and see the headlines. My oldest 2 kids have seen footage of 9/11 on tv. They know what happened, unfortunately.

[momofkhm]

We just studied 9/11 last week in school. I'm treating it as a current event. So far I have 2 kids awake. I started the conversation as "Who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks?" Once I get the right answer, I just said "US military forces killed him last night." Very matter of fact. DS (10 yo) just took it as information. Oldest dd (16 yo) said "Finally!" And then wanted a few more details. As they ask for information, I'll give it.

[pdalley]

We woke up middle last night to let him know. He was deeply affected by 9/11 and this made him feel much safer and better.

 

We'll tell the other two as they wake up. They were all aware of what happened on 9/11 and Bin Laden and his trail of terror that started well before 9/11. DH will explain what this probably means for us - how it happened and why.

 

BTW.... there are men in kilts in Times Square

[....]

BTW.... there are men in kilts in Times Square

 

Of course, there were. ;)

 

:lol:

[twoforjoy]

If he hears, I'm not really sure how I'd explain it.

 

We had a talk once about how, if a dog bites a person, sometimes that dog has to be killed. We shouldn't be happy about it and it would have been better if things had been different, but sometimes it's what has to happen, and we can be both sad that a dog died but feel better that it can't hurt anybody again. (There were a few news pieces here about pit bull attacks on children that REALLY scared my DS, which is why we were talking about it.)

 

I guess I'd explain that this is kind of the same thing.

[Chris in VA]

Just now said to my dd11,

"By the way, last night they announced they'd killed Osama Bin Laden. He's the one responsible for the 9-11 attacks on New York, the Pentagon and in Pa."

Her reply was "Good riddance."

[NanceXToo]

At the end of June, 2011 my daughter was not quite 9 months old and we moved out of New York to Pennsylvania.

 

She was just a baby when the 9/11 attacks occurred. The rest of us were horrified of course. We'd just moved out of NY, my uncle worked right near the WTC and we couldn't get in touch with him at first and he had seen firsthand people jumping out of windows and so on. A friend I worked with before I moved away, her father was never found. I have a brother in the military. It definitely felt personal to us, all of it.

 

But my daughter was so young that of course it didn't affect HER.

 

She's since heard snippets on 9/11 anniversaries and such so she does know that some bad people crashed planes into the towers and that people died but that's pretty much as far as it ever went. Now I'm going to need to give her more of an explanation because people will be talking about it all over.

 

I need to give her enough of the facts of who, what, why but without it being too "horrifying" for a 10 year old girl.

 

Just trying to figure out that balance, you know what I mean? So, :bigear:

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

So far, my kids are too young to know about this. They don't really know about 9/11.

 

I have been compiling what I call my "Crapbook" for when they are older. It contains my thoughts and emotions on the horrible events of the world that have transpired since they were born- like the Indonesian tsunami, Saddam Hussein, and now the Japan earthquake. That way when they are older and find out about these things, I have a record of my thoughts and feelings at the time.

[Carrie12345]

In our house, we're being very matter of fact about justice being done. A specific danger being eliminated (though we're avoiding talk about any potential retaliation). We're being very careful to explain that his death is a just thing, but that we aren't to rejoice in it as a terrorist would.

[delaney]

My older boys were like "yaaaaaay" but DD (10) just looked at me as if I were speaking Greek. I don't feel the need to explain it all to her. When we get to modern history we will talk about it.

[Princess Peach]

My kids know about 9/11 and what terrorists are. I told them this morning and they were pleased. They see it as the military doing their jobs and justice being done.

[kokotg]

I just explained it (briefly and matter of factly) to my almost 10 year old. "They'd been looking for him for almost 10 years," I told him. "Like Valjean!" he responded. Er. We just saw Les Mis at DH's high school this past weekend.

[AvasMom]

I told my kids this morning when I woke them up. They're Navy kids and we're raising them to be very pro-military (my son was singing SEAL cadence in the shower last night if that tells you anything...lol!). We just told them that the SEALS killed the guy who sent the planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and that we accomplished the main mission of the war. My daughter though they should have killed him on September 11th out of principle (lol!) and my son wanted me to declare today a holiday from schoolwork. Nice try but no. haha!

[Pink and Green Mom]

I started the conversation as "Who was responsible for the 9/11 attacks?" Once I get the right answer, I just said "US military forces killed him last night." Very matter of fact.

 

This is exactly what I did with my 10 year old, who did know what happened on 9/11. Yesterday was his birthday and he did ask if his birthday could now be declared a federal holiday... Although it worries me greatly, I haven't discussed any potential aftermath/backlash and will try not to "go there" with him.

 

My 6.5 year old has no idea so I just sent him off to kindergarten this AM with a red, white and blue polo shirt. He is none the wiser.

[elegantlion]

My ds was almost 4 when it happened. He remembers a lot. He also understand who Osama is as we've discussed it several times over the years. I'm sure we'll discuss it today.

[Twilight Woods]

I just asked DD [9] if she knows who UBL is and she said no.

 

She was 2 1/2 weeks old when 9/11 happened. I was actually sitting on the couch BF her watching the Today show when it all started to unfold.

 

*sigh*

 

SO I just explained it to her [she knows about 9/11 just not the specifics] that the guy who was in charge of 9/11 died. She said:

 

DD: OK How did he die?

 

Me: The Military found him and they fought and he was shot

 

DD: OK. Where did they find him?

 

Me: Pakistan

 

DD: Where is Pakistan

 

Me: Middle East

 

DD:OK

[JenC3]

I'm really surprised there is no problem with the way this was handled. Our government committed an assassination. Why was he not captured, taken to trial and then executed? I know he was evil, I know people suffered, but really, when did we just say it's okay to implement wild west justice?

[Carrie12345]

I'm really surprised there is no problem with the way this was handled. Our government committed an assassination. Why was he not captured, taken to trial and then executed? I know he was evil, I know people suffered, but really, when did we just say it's okay to implement wild west justice?

 

The same reason soldiers sometimes have to shoot other soldiers and police officers have to shoot criminals. One has to weigh the dangers of capture. There's no question in my mind that he was too dangerous to capture. In multiple respects.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

zach is deeply affected/emotional when he hears someone is either sick or has died...so far I haven't had the news station on where he could see it. I guess I"ll sit down with him later and tell him about 9-11 and how OBL did bad things and hurt alot of people and how our military finally stopped him. He understands about cops and bad guys so I think he'll understand it kinda like that........

[AvasMom]

I'm really surprised there is no problem with the way this was handled. Our government committed an assassination. Why was he not captured, taken to trial and then executed? I know he was evil, I know people suffered, but really, when did we just say it's okay to implement wild west justice?

 

Perhaps because the Navy Seals know what they are doing and acted as necessary and because spec ops is a world most of us don't have the first clue about. Just a thought.

[Crimson Wife]

Perhaps because the Navy Seals know what they are doing and acted as necessary and because spec ops is a world most of us don't have the first clue about. Just a thought.

 

Seriously!

 

I'm generally opposed to the death penalty under most circumstances, but sometimes it is necessary to put a criminal to death when the risks of trying to put him in prison and keep him there are too great.

[NanceXToo]

Well, after all of that, she came downstairs, and I said to her something like, "So, you know about 9/11 and what happened with the World Trade Center, right?" as my prelude to the conversation.

 

And she said:

 

"I already know. I watched the whole thing with Daddy last night."

 

Er. Okay! So I was sleeping, and they were up watching it. She hadn't known who bin Laden was or that he was behind it but she did know about 9/11 and the towers and now she's seen the whole president's speech and everything.

 

Which I have yet to see. I'll have to see if I can find it online! I found out on facebook this morning. Crazy.

[Cricket]

I'm really surprised there is no problem with the way this was handled. Our government committed an assassination. Why was he not captured, taken to trial and then executed? I know he was evil, I know people suffered, but really, when did we just say it's okay to implement wild west justice?

 

It sounds like it was an intense fight when they tried to apprehend him. Sometimes the only way to win the fight is to kill the suspect. Police do it as well depending on the situation. The soldiers didn't sneak up behind him and put a bullet in his head. (That is the way I think of assassinations anyway!)

[Joker]

Both dds know about 9/11 and I told them this morning. Dd, 9, didn't really seem to care but dd, 11, was upset. She said, "Doesn't this make us just like him?" I was actually surprised she had put much thought into those things. It led to a discussion of the death penalty and I've learned things I didn't know about my dd. I'm really glad we had the discussion we did.

[Amira]

I doubt my kids know who Usama bin Ladin was, but he's never gotten any attention from me when we've talked about 9/11 or the results of it. They are certainly familiar with the "war on terror," but there is a lot more to it than UBL and I think it's unfortunate that so much of the attention has been directed toward him.

 

They're also not going to hear about it from the kids around us. Despite various news sources reporting that post-Soviet Central Asia might become a hotbed of terror, UBL hasn't even been a topic of conversation here.

[eternalknot]

So those of you who have kids who are old enough to hear the talk going on in your home or neighborhood and require some sort of summary or explanation....

 

...what will you say to them? How will you explain/sum it up?

 

Wondering what I'm going to tell my 10 y/o daughter today before she starts hearing all the neighborhood kids talking about Osama being dead.

 

I told my son first thing this morning. He's very familiar with the events of 9/11 because I am a flight attendant with one of the airlines that was hijacked. We lost two family friends and colleagues he knew personally; every year we join fellow crewmembers at our local 9/11 memorial to remember those we lost. He was only one when it happened, so he doesn't have firsthand memory of the events.

 

His dad was already active duty, but 9/11 changed his enlistment. His MOS was highly deployable, and if he wasn't overseas then he was in the field training to be. He did multiple tours to Afghanistan and Iraq, coming home a bit more affected each time. On one tour we lost two friends, soldiers my son knew personally. One was a kid himself, the other had a family and children close in age to my own. My husband and son both struggled to accept the loss of their friends; any loss in the unit was mourned, but this was a bit too close to home. Our son essentially grew up with a dad that physically cycled in and out for a few weeks at at time, every few months, and was increasingly emotionally vacant or volatile. For all of his emotional baggage related to 9/11, I wanted my son to hear the news. I don't care if he celebrates it or not, I just want him to feel something. I recorded the press conference for him, and have given him the day off to process it. He's googling information and just taking it all in right now. I don't know how he'll feel later. He's already called his dad.

 

My daughter is only five. She knows the highlights of what happened on 9/11, but not the nitty gritty. The dad she knows has always suffered PTSD, and she's not old enough to really have known the friends we lost. She's sad at the annual vigil we attend for my colleagues, but it's not inherent it's her picking up the vibe of the gathering. She's looking to her brother to know how to process this. She knows it's significant, but I think she's too far removed and too young to fully know why.

[Princess Peach]

I'm really surprised there is no problem with the way this was handled. Our government committed an assassination. Why was he not captured, taken to trial and then executed? I know he was evil, I know people suffered, but really, when did we just say it's okay to implement wild west justice?

 

Um, no, this was not an assassination. There was an intense period of fighting and bin Laden was killed.

[Virg]

My children were in the living room when we turned on the tv and found out. They were both very happy! They know about 9-11 and their only Uncle, my little brother, is in the army so they know about the war on terror. They like to watch military documentaries so they were interested in how it happened and which branch of the military did it, were the SEALS involved, etc. We had a good discussion.

[elise1mds]

If it comes up, I'll explain that he was someone who had been hurting people and planning to hurt people for years... but I doubt it'll happen. What's more likely is that I'm going to have to rehash the 98% success rate for treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia since one of the kids in DD's school just got diagnosed with that and is now home in quarantine.