Inquiring minds want to know.
"Who is that man they keep talking about on TV?"
The boys weren't really paying attention, but the inquisitive 7-year-old was focused and wanted to know more about this Bin Laden man.
I tried to tiptoe through the topic, not wanting to scare her but also give her the truth. Her brain wants the truth and when we don't give it to her or give her enough of it, she finds a way to learn more herself. So instead of sending her off to school to ask questions about Bin Laden or find her googling the man's name (and seeing images we know she is not ready to see), we talked.
It was a great lesson about human nature, our choice to do good or bad, what God wants us to do with our lives, but it still came down to him being a "bad" man who killed a lot of people.
A few hours later a shiny blue square caught her eye, as Stephen cut his Amex card over the garbage can. "Oh Daddy, that is pretty, why are you cutting it?"
After having a second credit card number stolen, Stephen was taking care of the issue. Another bad person had stolen something from daddy. A thief.
So we begin the growing up stages of life. Not growing in the sense of height and weight, getting out of a car seat...the deeper issues. The emotional, sensitive issues. The introduction of bad people doing bad things. The issues that were only a part of books we read together now entered her real life.
My heart was heavy for her as she took in what Daddy had just told her. I know they have to grow up and I would much rather they know the things that happen in this world than be naive. Our world has changed and it just seems that 7 is a very young age to know about terrorists and thieves.
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Tell me about it. How about grandpa allowing them watch the footage of the planes crashing into the towers over and over on the day it happens when they are 2 and 4 years old...we've managed to keep them pretty naive or "innocent" of the world but they're catching up fast. I think the biggest thing is what their foundation is and developing a mind that can think critically/logically.
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