Discussing the State of the World With My Daughter

Here she is, eleven years old and just now realizing that there is a world bigger than her family out there. What a hell of a time for her to figure that out. Its a big, bad world out there. I guess it always has been, but it seems like the world is especially big and scary these days.

She came to me this morning asking about why J.K. Rowling would have called Donald Trump worse than Voldemort. (sigh) In one way this was funny because she heard this on the radio and she only has this vague idea of who Trump is but she knows clearly who Rowling is and the idea that J.K.  could have such a virulent opinion on a real human being caught her interest and all of the sudden, Ev just had to know what was happening in the world.

If you are reading this and you know me at all, you know that my parenting style is head on, I don't mince words and I don't treat my kids like they are anything but the smallish humans that they are. I give them age appropriate information and let them make up their own minds. I find it important not to force my own idea or opinions on them when it comes to religion or politics.

I began to tell her some of the reasons J.K. may have said that about Trump, I won't get into those reasons here, I think we all know them. Then, I also thought it was important to put that all into the background of current events and give her a broad view of why Trump was saying the things he was saying. We talked about the Paris bombings. The recent shooting in San Bernadino. Why people ar fleeing their home countries in the first place. I talked with her about how its very easy to understand how people can make decisions and have ideas based on fear and that sometimes those ideas can come from trying to protect those you love. We talked about the founding tenants of this country and what she thought about those, how freedom, freedom of religion and equality related to the issues that are relevant to the news today. We drew some comparisons in things being said in the media right now by candidates to things that have happened in history, ugly things. This was a hard talk. Not a talk you really want to have with your bright eyed, giggly, sweet faced daughter who just wants to see the best in everything.

I am happy to report that she emerged from the other side of the conversation seemingly unsinged. Just a little bit wiser and basically unchanged.