It’s always good to be prepared! We know that heartbreaking situations can happen any day when we least expect them. With the click of a television remote or the closing down of a website, we can visually remove the painful reality of tragedies and go about our day. But there are times when anguish can’t be taken away so easily. This is especially true for children or teens who may identify closely with tragedy victims who are in their same age groups.
Watch below for three ideas from BabbCenter Director, Jason Gibson, on how to respond to your kids if/when devastating circumstances occur.
Below are five conversation starters to use with your kids when situations arise that are difficult to discuss. Just read one or two of the questions below out loud with your kids and listen to what they have to say. (You may want to take a screenshot of these questions to have on hand when the next challenging situation occurs and you want to talk with your children in a sensitive manner.)
Conversation Starters for Difficult Situations:
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What are your friends and other kids saying about this at school? After they respond, ask: What do you think?
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I just heard about what happened. Tell me two things you know are the facts and one thing you heard that doesn’t sound true.
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When things like this happen, I ask myself all kinds of questions. What questions are you wondering about?
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Hearing about these kinds of tragedies makes people wonder if they are really safe. Are there any times during the week when you don’t feel as safe as you would like to?
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There are many things that happen in this world that I don’t really understand. It’s hard to know what to do when things feel so uncertain. What do you do when things just don’t make sense?