What would u do if your toddler saw real violence on T.V.???

Question

I am gonna be a sophmore in highschool and my history teacher from last year (who is the teacher who has impacted me the most out of ALL of my previous teachers in every grade) and I still keep in touch via e-mail. We were talking about the recent violence in Isreal-Lebanon. He said that his 2 and a half year old daughter saw some of the violence and bloodshed of it on T.V. when he was putting her to bed one night and she asked "What was that". He asked me, in my future if this happened wat would i do? now i am usually good at giving advice and solving problems but i have no idea on this one. plz help. thx.

Answer 1

Do not have this kinda stuff on the Tv while your toddler is up and abot if it worries you.

Answer 2

First I have to say that it sucks that we live in such a world that we have to worry about explaining things like this to young kids.
I think that you have to be honest and tell them the truth. We were always honest with our boys. Even when they asked dad if he killed anybody when he was in Viet Nam. He was in the Navy and on a river patrol boat so he is not really sure, but that night we spent the whole evening discussing war and the things that go along with it. The boys were 9 and 3 at the time.
I have just never believed in sheltering kids from the things that they will have to deal with in the world outside the front door.
I know that you have to be careful how you handle certain situations, and you never want to tell you kids about people killing people. But most kids do much better with the simplest most honest explanation to a question. Than if you try to sugar coat it.
What is a war?---- It is the way some people think that they have to settle their arguments. It is not always the best way because lots of people get hurt.
With most 2 yr olds that will be enough. Especially if they know they are safe.

Answer 3

I literally won't let my daughter watch the news because there is no "Good News" - no matter what channel you watch, there's going to be something that my 2.5 year old is going to question, and quite frankly I don't know HOW I'm going to answer some of it!

If she saw violence and questioned why people would WANT to hurt each other - since I tell her she cannot hit - and she has to be nice to EVERY living thing - I do not know what I would say.

Maybe something (LAME) like, "Well Boo, you know how I don't let you do some things that your cousin can do - well there are people all over the world who believe different things. Some people think the only way to be right, is to make the other person hurt. Mommy and Daddy don't believe in that, but like your cousin believes some things you don't there are other people in the world who believe things that are different from what Mommy and Daddy do."

Answer 4

The television doesn't HAVE to be on, you know! It is completely inappropriate for a child as young as that to watch the news, especially the sort of thing going on in the world right now - not because they should be forever cushioned against the bad things that happen but because of the precise reason for posting this question - the difficulty of giving a satisfactory explanation. In my opinion you should NEVER lie to children who ask an honest question because they will soon learn to distrust you, but you can keep them from asking those questions in the first place until they are old enough to be able to process difficult answers. So the advice your friend should follow is, don't turn on the TV news until after his daughter has gone to bed. Enjoy the peace and quiet of a TV-free zone. Talk or play instead.

Answer 5

I think it's always best to be truthful. But I also think a child that age can't process too much information about something like this. So I would say what I've said to my three-year-old, who saw similar pictures on the front page of the newspaper: "People in another part of the world are fighting, and these peoples' house got knocked down, and some of them got hurt." And then I'd ask how she felt when she saw it ("Does that make you sad?"), and tell her that I'd be happy to talk more if she had questions, and then drop it.

I'll bet that, despite the graphic violence, the little girl won't remember very much of what she saw.

Answer 6

Even if she doesn't understand, tell her the truth.He needs to explain it the best he can, in words that she can undertand. It really isn't good for little children to watch that sort of thing on tv. Her Dad should send her into another room while the news is on, or wait until after she goes to bed. We don't even understand the violence, a 21/2 year old surely wouldn't

Answer 7

for a toddler, I'd use words like They Were Not Being Gentle and Their Moms are Not Very Happy and They Are All Getting Time-Outs So They Can Think About What They Just Did

for dead people on TV, sometimes just saying Their Bodies Aren't Working Any More is all a toddler can understand

Answer 8

Wow 2 years is a very young age. The fact that she even cared to ask what was going on is a interesting sign. But besides that, at 2 years old I feel that instead of getting technical and explaining the truth and embedding her brain with scary thoughts. Candy coat it and tell her that it was a movie. Why ? Because shes 1) to young to even comprehend and 2) to young to even develop her own reasoning for it as well as to young to even worry about SUCH violent things that even us adults have a hard time comprehanding.

Answer 9

My children are 5 and 3 and they watch the news. Every night they have questions about what they see - car accidents, bombs, tsunami's, politics, war, police etc.. Answer it the best u can and be honest but not graphic.

Answer 10

I'm usually a big "level with them" kind of person when it comes to children, but sometimes its fine to say, "What? People on tv were doing bad things? I don't know what they were doing. I missed it. Whatever it was its gone now."

The child is two and a half - not fiv or twelve..