Terrorist Attacks in our Childrens World

Following yesterdays horrendous events in Westminster I felt like I wanted to write down some thoughts on my blog.

In my lifetime I feel like this is starting to become the norm having witnessed the following.... September 11th, London bombings, Paris, Brussels, Germany and the list could go on.  Why is this the norm? Why should our children grow up in a world where this is becoming not a normal but a regular occurrence that they are witnessing?

I think these situations are very difficult to make sense of for adults so how do you go about explaining this to children who are of an age when they are aware? As children grow and develop their own thoughts and feelings it is a constant dilemma how much do you let them be exposed to and share with them?  In my position as a nanny I am met with many questions about news stories and can imagine I probably will about these attacks. If you are a fellow childcarer such as myself  I think the best thing to do is to find out what the children are aware of already by speaking to their parents out of earshot! This way you will be more prepared for any questions that may come your way.  All children are different but I think most simply this is how you should deal with questions if you are in my position.

1.Listen to them but keep very light hearted...rare situation, police are working hard etc.

2. Reassure them and any worries.

3. Any difficult questions revert them to their parents.  This might sound like a scapegoat mechanism but as a nanny its not upto me to decide what they should and shoudnt know so be vague.

4.Inform parents of what children have said-keep communication lines open!

On my social media I shared the following link that Children's weekly magazine The weekly junior shared yesterday evening.  The post they shared gave some usual advice on how to talk with children about the attacks in Westminster but also this advice is good to terrorism in general.  Also childrens news website such as newsround are very good as they give facts but don't dwell onto much negativity.

Newsround link-http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/39354907

Newsround link for children upset by reading sad news-http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/13865002

I hope you find the following links useful and lets take a moment for those who lost their lives yesterday and keep their family's and loved ones in our thoughts.

Nanny Bicester x