Protect Your Child With Education

Protect Your Child With Education

As a parent you try to filter out anything that you think your child is too young for. As son as you turn around though, someone says "monster tornado" and "shooting" and "bridge collapse" and a whole bunch of other stuff where your young child can here it.

So as a parent you have to make a decision on what to do. Do you say "it was so far away, you don't need to worry. It will NEVER happen here." or find a way to get them to ignore it? Or do you explain it? The truth is, no matter what your approach, there will be fear. Your child will be afraid, and as a parent, it is your job to help them through the situation, understand it, and let them know they are safe.

Here is what I do. I educate my child. I help him understand what happened and how we can prevent it. In light of recent events, some of these topics are really hard to talk about. I also know, that not all parents want their child to know about the details of these events (I am one of them).

So here is the most recent example....

The massive tornado that struck a few days ago. Children dead, houses destroyed danger.

So what did we do? We learned.

First we watched some videos of how tornadoes work on youtube.

We then made a tornado in a bottle

We made rain in a bottle

We then made an emergency kit and practiced going in the basement

 Finally, we talked about how our area has never been hit by a tornado, but that we have to be prepared.

You don't have to take this approach, however I can tell you that my 4yo son is no longer afraid. He understands what happened, and by learning about what happened and making him feel safe, he no longer asks why people died, he does not ask if it will happen to him, and he does not listen to what other people are saying.