What Do I Think on This Tuesday?
I woke up Monday morning to the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead. I admit my first reaction was, “really?” And when the report came in about his body being buried at sea, too many CIA movies (The Bourne series) and tv shows (Alias) took over and my next reaction was, “sure he is”.
Then my 11 year old daughter walked in the room and I realized how cynical my husband and I sounded and I shut it down. Not the news, because she needed to know what was going on, but the talk about it. I don’t want to pass on that attitude to her. She needs to be able to believe things at face value – at least at this age.
I find it challenging with my youngest child. It was easy to protect our oldest child’s childhood, we probably did too good a job at that and kept him “young” too long. Some of the lessons learned were harder on him than they had to be. Our middle child seems to be fairly on track. But the youngest, I feel bad at times for her. It is much harder to protect her childhood. She has two big brothers so she sees more, hears more, and experiences more than they did at her age. We are more open because we’re discussing things with her 14 and 18 year old brothers. We enjoy vibrant conversation at the dinner table about current events. Overall, it is a good thing, but I’m conscious that she’s growing up much faster than I’d like.
After dinner talk turned to whether the pictures of a “dead” Osama Bin Laden on the internet were real or fake (the boys had looked them up in class). I was disturbed that my daughter wanted to see with a somewhat cavalier attitude. She doesn’t remember 9/11 of course, though she’s heard the stories of that horrific day. I tried to explain to her that it wasn’t pretend, and not funny. However horrible and evil Bin Laden had been – he was a human being. I told her no, and didn’t let her see the pictures that are being posted. I’m sure at some point she’ll see them. But not today, not from me.
For now I’ll send her (and me) back to “Despicable Me“, “Princess Diaries“, “Tangled” and The Royal Wedding.
I’ll leave it to people far smarter than I to decide if Bin Laden is dead or not.
Must admit I felt just as cynical when I first heard the news, Sheila, wondering if it really was true. Also the pictures of people 'celebrating' in NYC and DC disturbed me greatly, even though I accept he was the figurehead of a movement which has brought so much grief to so many people.
Now I await with trepidation the 'reprisals' which are surely being planned right now.
I was happy to hear of Bin Laden's death, but the over-zealous celebrating seemed disturbing. Kudos for protecting you daughter. Keep her innocent as long as you can.
I was walking a similar line with my youngest yesterday and found it difficult to explain what had happened in a way that would sound logical but yet still unsettling. Great post.
My Blog
I can't imagine the challenges of raising a kid now. I see grade school aged kids out shopping, dressed like prostitutes (no other way to put it) and talking about things no kid that age should know. Probably a good thing I don't have kids. I'd never let them out of the house.
Only time will tell, whether or not he's truly dead.
Kudos on the raising of your children. She will learn enough about all this in time.
As for Bin Laden, I have no doubt he is dead. The announcement came so soon after the attack that to be wrong about that would be political suicide for Obama and the Dems. (which by the way would be okay if they committed it for some OTHER reason). If he wasn't dead and he showed up on TV he would be a GOD among his followers and that would be the cruelest blow of all. He's dead.
See now, I took it at face value. They said he was dead, I said he's dead, but then I started reading the news articles and it seems you are not the only one who is questioning if he is really dead. Opened my eyes, thats for sure.
I felt like a horrible parent when we were talking to my step daughter about Bin-Laden and how he was behind the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. She looked at us with such confusion that I asked her if she knew what 9/11 was. Her response….it's like 9-1-1 what you call for an emergency.
My 11 year old step daughter had no idea was 9/11 was or how awful it was. I guess that's good, because it means she isn't worrying about terrorist attacks, but at the same time it felt like she should have some grasp of recent history. It made me wonder if they teach about the twin tower attacks in school. Anyway, I don't think she fully grasped the depth of Bin Ladens death which is just was well. Unfortunately, even though she doesn't fully grasp the situation I have a suspicion she will be talking about it with great authority to her friends. I guess when I was in 5th grade I was an expert on everything too, regardless of whether or not I truly understood the subject.