Kid buys model plane

[theelfqueen]

Kid at the WWII museum where I work buys a model B-29.

Kid is probably 6-8.

I'm telling kid about the two that fly and that it's a really big bomber.

Kids asks me "Can it bomb a whole city?"

Shoot a look at mom who is listening but not showing clear horror.

I say "It's the only plane that ever has."

Moms eyes wide now as she realized what I'm alluding to. I changed the subject to something else he is buying.... Mom can explain the A-bomb. 

Edited May 11, 2022 by theelfqueen

[Gil]

I'm a little confused. Since you work at a WWII Museum, isn't explaining to folks about the war (and the Atom-bomb) which played a pivotal role in  both ending that war, and also in preventing a lot of would-be-wars since then, a part of your job?

 

[Xahm]

23 minutes ago, Gil said:

I'm a little confused. Since you work at a WWII Museum, isn't explaining to folks about the war (and the Atom-bomb) which played a pivotal role in  both ending that war, and also in preventing a lot of would-be-wars since then, a part of your job?

 

I'd guess they are careful with this with the younger set, looking to parents to get guidance on how much to share. My older kids have known a little about the bombing of Hiroshima by about 8, but it wouldn't have been best for them to first hear of it casually in a museum gift shop 

[theelfqueen]

In the museum proper,  on the hangar floor, in context of a larger conversation - yes, absolutely the place and time..  our docents certainly have that conversation with older students on field trips all the time  ... but in the gift shop on the way out, quite young, with mom looking genuinely unaware of what her child just asked? If the kid had responded in a way that showed he understood what he asked or my passing answer (or mom had looked less shocked) I might have responded differently. There's  a lot of reading the room in this context. Thus the watching Mom.

We have some kids come in who are obsessed with World War II and know surprising amounts who are talking campaigns and battle specifics and asking questions that are knowledgeable and insightful ... and we have some kids who just want to look at cool planes and we hope they leave knowing more than they arrived knowing. 

It's a weird position to be in because it is such sensitive info and such a potentially sensitive audience. We are a World War II Aviation museum so for example there isn't a ton of coverage of the holocaust in our displays but there is a lot about the Blitz. And we have more of an Asian theater focus than a lot of WWII museums... so we need to read the audience. 

Edited May 11, 2022 by theelfqueen