How do you talk to children about the news?

There is so much going on in the world today and as my son is getting older and understanding more, I find it difficult to censor all that he hears and sees. In the morning I like to listen to talk radio or catch up with CNN, but he catches to much that I worry I may be over exposing him to things he can't quite handle yet. Sometimes I ask him to go and play in another room, which works about 20% of the time. Other times I'll just avoid the stations until he is at school for the morning. But with such big news happening (Egypt, Libya, and Japan to name a few) it's not always easy to avoid because so many channels are covering it. With the media coverage being what it is, we get so many photos and videos of what is actually taking place and sometimes these are very graphic, put that together with words like- killed, destroyed, shooting, death tolls, disaster, explosions, and the list goes on- I think this can be very hard for a 5 year-old to digest.

Explaining what was happening in Egypt and Libya was difficult and for the most part I would say I don't know or I that the majority of the people don't want their leader to be in charge any more. The "why" questions on this topic were very difficult because it usually led to "good guy, bad guy" explanations; which I try to avoid doing because real life events are more complicated than cartoons and comic books. I try to follow news like this up with something along the lines of the importance of learning to get along with others even if they are different from you.

But it doesn't even have to be the violent news that's the most traumatic, for example, Remy loves to watch the Weather Channel. Well, they don't just tell what the weather is going to be for the day or the week, but also the damage that weather can cause from: floods, snowstorms, earthquakes, fires, mudslides, hurricanes, etc... There was a time when Remy was watching the Weather Channel everyday, during the day it's mostly the forecast, but at night... well, it's very different. One day he says to me, "I like to watch the Weather Channel, but not at night because it's scary." At night is when they show most of the shows that have live footage of massive natural disasters. He would get so worked up about certain things that I began to ask him if he knew what to do during certain situations, like if the house caught fire, or there was a tornado, in hopes that having a bit of knowledge would help him to not feel as helpless.

Now, with the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and the nuclear plant melt downs he's drawn to all the images of destruction and asks things like, "What happened? Why are all those buildings knocked down? Where do the people go?" My response was, "there was an earthquake that caused a big wave, called a tsunami, that is very strong and it hit Japan, which is made of several islands." Then comes my most dreaded question, "why?" If that question came from Bryan, I probably would have said something like, "I don't know, do I look like a geologist?" But since it was Remy I said, "well, there are plates under the ground and when they move that causes an earthquake. And because the water in the ocean can be affected by earthquakes making it go away from the beach it eventually comes back towards the beach, but it goes much faster and stronger becoming a wave bigger than everything." Mind you there are lots of arm movements aiding me in my explanation of a topic that I don't know much about. But he didn't ask anymore questions, just simply said, "oh, that's so sad," and that was the end of that... for the time being.

As I sit hear and decide what and how I want to teach my child about the dangers of the world, I can only think about how lucky I am to be able to decide that. While I pick and choose or "kiddy" coat such horrible events, I am saddened that there are some parents that don't have that option. The things that I only see on the news are reality for others.