THE SITUATION...........at the school today each homeroom teacher sat and spoke with her class on their level of understanding about the situation. I hadn't talked to the boys until tonight about it at all. I'm more of the school of thought that i'd rather keep them young and innocent as long as possible---why muck their brains up with things they can't understand. But other parents talk, and other parents don't censor what their kids see on tv or hear from the radio. so the school levels the playing field a bit by talking to the classes asking them what they know, and providing more truthful information that they can digest at their level of understanding.
My older son is in 2nd grade. When I asked him if they talked about things that are going on in our country, he responded with a brief "yeah, but I didn't really understand..." He then proceeded to mention something about falling trees and people on whom they fell. After talking to him for a while I realized the 'trees' that he thought were falling were the KASAMs, but he didn't know the word, so he somehow made an association of falling trees. The teacher asked if there were kids who had family members in the army, we do not. I reminded him of a couple of good friends who are soldiers whom we have "adopted", and we talked about their role in all of this. My little one, who is in kindergarten, remembered our soldier friends and wanted to know HOW they are protecting our country. I spoke with him briefly about it as well, and made sure to reassure both of them that the rockets that are falling are not going to reach us (we hope).
I felt sad discussing this with them, but relieved to offer the hope, and proud that one of the things they were each concerned with, were the people who ARE living within range. We said a little prayer, and hugged each other goodnight. I can't help thinking about the moms of the soldiers who tonight are longing for day way back when when their babies were 5 and 7 and needed just one more hug.........it's not easy living here at times like these..........not that I'm scared or that I feel like I'm in any physical danger. It's the toll that it takes on the emotions......wishing that this is as intense that my emotions need to get, and praying tonight especially for the safety and success of our boys....................amen.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
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I can remember sitting in my living room a number of years ago, listening to the neighborhood kids playing outside. It was at a time when there were lots of suicide bombings here, not to mention several which took place in our area, and at one point, I heard one of the kids say, "this time, I want to be the suicide bomber".
Unfortunately, I think it's hard to keep them so innocent here.
I remember being convinced during the Second Lebanon War that our son, who was two years old at the time and had only recently begun to speak in sentences, was going to start asking what a katyusha was (it didn't happen).
just hold your boys close. our school has the kids saying tehillim and stuff for the soldiers. i'm reluctant to talk too much about what's going on. i don't want our kids thinking that they weren't safe when we lived there and i feel like soon i'll have to have that discussion with them.
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