Lessons

My kids are too young to really show much interest in what happened on 9/11 so we definitely didn't sit them down and talk to them about it, but we have kept the tv off the channels showing the footage of the attacks. I know they hear us talking about it, but I think we will be waiting until they are school age before we sit down and discuss the finer details.

I have read many parenting blogs and articles about how to talk to your kids about 9/11. I think it will be different for each family, depending on how your family was personally impacted. In general, I agree with the vast majority of what the articles say, but I do part ways with many of the comments. It seems many parents see 9/11 anniversaries as an opportunity to illustrate to their children the great evil that humans are capable of bringing on each other. Many parents seem to think that it is okay to use this day as a day to make their children terrified of people who are different or who disagree with us.

I think this is the wrong lesson to take from 9/11. A few dozen people did something evil. But thousands, and one could argue millions, illustrated the human capacity for good. We shouldn't focus on the murderers, but on the firefighters who rushed in and saved people and on the civilians who stepped up on that day to help strangers.

My children aren't old enough to comprehend the pictures or stories of 9/11, but when they are I hope the lesson they take away is not that people are evil, but that during evil times people are capable of great good.