"Can children die?"
@NormanDarlo (1071)
Ireland
October 15, 2018 5:38pm CST
Overheard at today’s re-enactment of the 1798 Battle of Vinegar Hill (which put paid to the United Irishmen’s rebellion against centuries of British oppression), a young child asking her mother: “Can children die, Mammy?”
As a parent, I know there are many difficult questions we face from our children. Sometimes it is difficult to give an open honest answer. Sometimes it is easier to deflect, kick for touch, run for cover, circumlocute. The question above is maybe the hardest, when it comes from a young child, whose emotional vulnerability we must protect. I didn't hear the mother's answer.
How would you answer?
8 people like this
4 responses
@LeaPea2417 (36438)
• Toccoa, Georgia
20 Oct 18
I would answer true fully to the child.
2 people like this
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
20 Oct 18
It is the best way, but it can be hard to do it sensitively.
1 person likes this
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
19 Oct 18
Yes, Judy. From the tone of the child asking the question, I felt sure that the possibility had never crossed her mind before, until she saw in the re-enactment that that was exactly what was about to happen.
1 person likes this
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
19 Oct 18
It is a very difficult one, Manuela. Especially if the question arrives unexpectedly and demands an immediate response.
1 person likes this
@nela13 (55698)
• Portugal
19 Oct 18
@NormanDarlo my children ask difficult things sometimes but never such a hard one.
1 person likes this
@NormanDarlo (1071)
• Ireland
19 Oct 18
@nela13 We can protect our children for a certain period, but eventually the curtains of reality are fully opened for them. It is with great sadness that even we adults have to observe the human stage.
1 person likes this
