The recent events in Haiti are never far from my mind these days. I watch the news and I cannot believe the things have have happened over there—that are happening. Everything in our lives seems impossibly luxurious now, and I feel both grateful for our situation and helpless in the face of such an enormous tragedy.
We watch the news at night and if things aren’t too graphic, we let our preschooler watch it too. I’ve tried talking about the earthquake with him, but I don’t think he quite understands. He does want to know if earthquakes happen here, too, and he’s super focused on whether or not there are firefighters in Haiti because I think in his mind firefighters make everything okay.
It’s hard to know how to talk about subjects like Haiti with kids. I don’t want to scare him, but I do want to teach him a bit about what happened and what people are doing to help. I want him to understand how Mommy and Daddy are trying to help by sending money, so he knows that’s what our family does when we can.
For those of you with similar confusion and questions, here’s a list of resources I found when researching ideas for talking about Haiti and other difficult news events with children.
• This PBS classroom lesson plan is a good starting point for discussing the earthquake with older kids.
• Fellow Work It, Mom writer Lylah has a great post on this topic over at Boston.com.
• Care.com’s Robi Ludwig talks about how to explain tragedies to kids in this quick video Q&A.
• From a doctor with the MGH Psychiatry Department, this article discusses strategies for talking about Haiti or other tragic news events with children, from toddlers to adolescents.
• Tips for talking, and taking action to help.
I’d love to hear how you address topics like this with your kids. Have you found ways to share information without making it scary, or even how to encourage kids to get involved with charity?
Thanks for the hat tip! Scholastic also has a great resource for kids, written by kid reporters, so the news presented there is age appropriate and easy to discuss. Their “Crisis in Haiti” package is here: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=705
Lylah | January 21st, 2010 at 5:53 pm
We have a 5 and a 2 year old and whille the younger one is fairly oblivious, the 5 year old doesn’t miss a trick. She wanted to know what was going on so we did our best to explain without frightening her. We live in the middle of the US so earthquakes are as far removed from her experience as tsunamis. We tried to focus on the basics (”the ground shook and it broke up buildings and houses so people lost their homes and stuff”) and steered away from the death. Not sure if that’s right or not but it seemed wrong to saddle her with something heavy like that when there is nothing that can be done . . .
I’m very proud that we did what we COULD do to help: our family made Care Kits for the victims (toothbrushes and paste, soap, towels, combs, band-aids, shampoo and OTC pain relievers). This was a wonderful project for little kids - they helped with the shopping and assembly - and made us all happy that we had done some concrete good for people who need it.
Sally | January 25th, 2010 at 3:59 pm