How do you explain Sept 11th to a child? I'm sure, in fact I've been sure for a while, that my kids will have to write papers in junior high asking, "What were you doing on Sept 11th?" and including my memories of the attacks. But my kids are so little. This morning the conversation went something like this.
Emma: Wow! Mom there are flags in our yards! What is today?
Me: It's Patriot Day.
Anson: What's Patriot Day?
Me: Well...um...it was a day that some bad guys killed a lot of people. So we remember the people who died today.
Anson: Was it like a war?
Me: It started what we call the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Emma and Anson: COOOOL!!!
Anson: Were we alive during the battle?
Me: You were both alive on that Sept 11th. Anson you were about 11 months old, Emma you were 2. Nathan and Annika weren't born yet.
Anson (to Emma): We were alive during the battle!! (Singing and jumping around by both of them.)
Me (to myself): It wasn't a battle.
Anson: It wasn't a battle? Then what was it?
Me: Just bad guys killing people. (Thinking) ...Killing regular people as they went about a regular day.
Emma: I want to tell Nathan when he wakes up.
Me: Naw, just let Nathan be. He's only 5.
1 comment:
Their innocence and excitement is very sweet. The world is so much more simple through the eyes of children. I guess that's why I choose to surround myself with them.
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