It is difficult for anyone to cope with horrible things happening to innocent people, but it is especially difficult for a child to handle. It is the responsibility of the parent to help guide a child through such horrendous acts of violence, but how should they go about doing that?
The age of the child is a major factor of how you should handle the situation. “If it’s a very young child, I would keep him away from TV sets, try to limit their access to the kind of news that I’ve been watching myself on TV,” said Dr. Alan Hilfer. If the child is older it is important to calm them, as well as make sure that they know the world is not perfect and sometimes scary things can happen. Dr. Yeuhda said “resist completely minimizing the anxiety, because we do live in a world where it is important to prepare ourselves and our children for adversity. But the idea that bad things happen but you can be safe is a more powerful message than ‘don’t worry, that can never happen,’ which is fictitious and doesn’t ultimately serve to calm down a child. You can’t go against the reality.” The best thing to let your child know is that even though there are a few wicked people in the world, the majority of people are good. This information does not just apply to the Boston Marathon Bombing; it can also help with other tragedies the children might have to face.
Article by: J.J. Barbosa