• I don’t watch or listen to the news when my children are awake – the images are too violent for their innocent eyes and ears. Instead, I listen to NPR or other news radio while cooking a meal in the kitchen. Their playroom is adjacent to the kitchen and so my young children will play while I prepare food by their side. They will play make-believe games about fairies and gnomes, while I listen to real-life news reports about villains and evil-doers. My children are too young to understand some of the graphic language and details about shootings and killings. Or so I thought…

    The other day I was making an attempt at listening to the news on the radio, and my older daughter, who I thought was playing on the other side of the room, had been listening to the radio show about Israel and the Palestinians. She started asking questions I wasn’t prepared to answer effectively. I believe it’s healthy to expose children to new experiences but this was a level of violence that I’m not sure that I even understand. Therefore, I realized then that I can no longer listen to the radio. I don’t want her hearing yet about the guns, killings and bombs of our world, our country, our city. I want her to continue playing ‘family’ and drawing pictures, cooking in her play kitchen. I don’t want the news to start raking away at her juvenile vocabulary. I’m not ready for her to leave her bubble. And so, I must keep myself in a bubble too.

    I haven’t listened to the news in weeks. I don’t really know what is going on in the world right now. But I can say, I am a very peaceful ostrich, even if I have sand in my eyes. How will I be able to educate myself about current events in the future? How will I answer these profound questions children ask about news-related events without freaking them out? Each side has it’s arguments but none of it justifies the violence. So, until I figure out the answers to those questions, I am on a news-listening hiatus. When my daughters are asleep, I will have to start reading the news on the internet. Or better yet, I can get a newspaper so that I can demonstrate reading a paper in front of them. Perhaps in her next playtime make-believe session, she will pretend to read a newspaper, just like her mommy does.