I typically watch the news in the early morning hours before the kids get up for school and then turn it off when they wake up. As the wife of a police officer I am very careful about what the kids see in the media - all too often the lead stories scream headlines of "officers ambushed," "police killed," and so forth. (For more on that, see Cop the Truth's post Four More Washington Officers Ambushed and Murdered.)
My daughter is 6, my son is 9. My son is becoming aware of the dangers of his father's profession. He's interested in the military and watches the History and Military channel shows with his father. He's started to ask questions and we can see the wheels spinning in his head about his father's job. We are trying to be as honest and open as we can, while also tempering the scary truth with sensitivity for his young outlook on life. I don't want to take away his innocence too soon and let him know that it's possible his father can be killed by some POS who sees a uniform as a target.
My daughter, however, is still in that stage where all she thinks Daddy does is help lost kids, keep bad guys away and come to school once in awhile to talk to her class about safety and strangers and maybe handcuffing her teacher for laughs. She dances around the house in her ballet uniform and says she's going to marry her Daddy someday.
This morning, however, she snuck out of bed early and into the kitchen where I was packing their lunches and watching the news about the horrible tragedy in Washington. I had left the room for one minute - kid you not - one minute, and come back to hear her sounding out the words (she's learning to read and phonetically sounds out every sign, word or writing she sees) "Four Off-Cers Killed To-Day." It was like one of those slow motion moments as I thought "crap!" to myself and lunged for the remote.
Too late, I saw that the words she was playfully sounding out had sunk in. She looked at me questioningly and asked if she had read that right. "Yes," I told her, accepting that the cat was out of the bag and sitting down next to her and drawing her into my lap.
"Why are there 4 police dead, Mom?" she asked. I explained to her that Daddy was ok (he was at work at the time) and that these officers, who lived far away, had died because a very bad man had made a very bad decision and left it at that. I told her that these officers were now in heaven and continuing to protect people like guardian angels and God was happy to have more help.
She cuddled with me for a minute, looked up at me with those Bambi eyes and said she hoped their Mommies are ok. I tried not to cry and suggested that maybe we can make a card for their families and she like the idea.
Luckily the clock was ticking and we had to get ready for school. In all the hustle and bustle I forgot about that moment until after I had left them at school. I have to go pick them up in a little while. Will she remember this morning and ask me more? She may not - attention spans at this age are pretty darn short. But I will watch her and try to be ready.
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