Jeff Stahler for April 18, 2013

Try to explain to them that we would rather waste money on the military than mental health care and reeducation of people unemployed or underemployed. Tell them that no matter what crap they watch in hollywood movies that it’s not real and it’s not the way to deal with people and problems. Tell them we need to unite as a country and quit making excuses for why we can’t do things and insist our government work to resolve our problems. Tell them we need to look in the mirror when they ask “why do these people kill each other?” ]Be honest with them and explain it’s our failure and encourage them to try to do better.

How about not treating the kids like they are idiots until they are 30?

Reminds me do the story about some kid who, watching the Eisenhower funeral in 1969’ wondered “Who shot him?”

The truth is that children are a lot more resilient than adults (especially today’s adults) in times of tragedy.

When a child asks and not before. Let the child know at the age he or she is that the adults are doing the best they can to catch the people responsible.

Then answer any other question the child might have. Sometime a child will have more questions some times not.

If not then the child has all his/her concerns and curiosity satisfied. If more questions are forth coming. Do not lie just be as honest about your knowledge of the events. Be truthful.

But keep in mind the age of your child when answering. A teen will probably know more than you, or think he or she will, about what has happened. Will have some opinions already. Be ready to answer those opinions honestly and give your own opinion(s) in an honest manner.

A child of 7 will only know what he/she has heard from you, other adults, and possibly at a daycare/preschool. Again be honest and assure your child. But do not over load with too much information. Answer each question. Chances are that at 7 the child is only curious as to what has the adults all concerned and not much more than that.

That is just my opinion on how to deal with such things when answering question[s] from children. The child is asking questions. A child is entitled to an honest answer from an adult. Again my opinion.

Unfortunately, there may not be any way to talk to your children about any act of killing out there no “…For Dummies” or “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To…” approach is going to help, here.…This is life as we know it in the here and now and things like bombings and mass shootings are things that do happen from time-to-time.…As for why they happen?…All we know is that the reasons for why they happen also vary with each incident and that there are also incidents out there where we may never know why they were carried out.…To this day, we don’t know why Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy in 1963 any more than why James Eagan Holmes and Jared Lee Loughner did their acts and anybody who tells one differently should always be suspect and should have whatever evidence they present out there in support of their claims checked and verified.…You can’t always keep your children safe from harm out there or from learning whatever information is out there and just like “the playground”, they may get some facts right, some facts partially right, some facts partially wrong, and some facts totally wrong and that’s part of life, too.

When your kids ask a question answer truthfully. Know where they are and who they are with. Give them rules, tell them what they see on video games and in the movies is not the smart way to handle problems. And most of all give lots of hugs.

..I just think we should send the kids out in the fields and factories for 12 hours a day or so picking cotton or tomatoes,building Chevies and pounding steel….

Grenada, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Honduras, Cambodia, Laos: a few countries where we (friendly America) explained the “facts of life” to seven-year-olds, by bombing their homes, killing their parents, and blowing off some of their limbs.

Yep, here at home we have to “defend” them from knowing anything about sex until they, or their girlfriends, are pregnant, or we have to explain what all the violence on the news, let alone “video games” is all about.