TheMommyBlog

I talk about things like fires, earthquakes, and death when they are relevant. Our daughter is imaginative and sensitive. The other night I heard her crying on bed for all the pets she knew who’d died.

With regards to Haiti, I haven’t talked with her yet about it. Sometimes i will use an event like this to jump start a conversation of what can happen, how we can be prepared, and how we can help.

For example, I was literally caught in the Oakland Hills fire in 1991 and lost pretty much everything. I’ve spoken about that with her because I don’t have pictures or things from my childhood to share with her. Only the stories.

I think it’s good she knows that bad things can happen to good people and really bad things happening to you does not necessarily mean that your life is over or terrible for ever after.

Our son just turned 5 and is on the autism spectrum. It’s a little hard to talk about abstract things like that with him right now.

I am so not a fan of 24-hour coverage TV “news” coverage. Tragedy is not a spectator sport.