Sept 11th....?

Question

How do u explain this to a 7 year old. We watched World Trade Center together. She was asking a lot of questions and as I tried to explain it to her she seemed more confused. Words like war and terrorist she don't really understand. I know it's complicated anyway, but is there a simple way to put it? Thanks....only helpful answers please....I'm not asking your opinion about letting my daughter watch this.

Answer 1

I actually think it's great you let her watch it. She has the right to know what happened, after all.

Try explaining things as simple as possible. Tell her that there are people in this world who do very bad things, and because bad people flew planes into our buildings we had to go fight them so they wouldn't do it again.

Answer 2

Despite the fact that you don't want opinions on letting your daughter watch a violent movie (historical fiction or horror flick, it still isn't that bright), I'm going to start w/ that. You could've waited to show it to her until she was older and DID understand war and terrorism. Those images really stick in kids' minds...in fact, shortly after 9/11, ABC news decided to stop showing video clips b/c small kids couldn't understand that it was old footage and thought it was happening again and again. At least someone thought it was a smart move not to traumatize kids.

Second, explain to her that war is what happens when people disagree and get violent. But also use it as a teaching moment--teach her that violence isn't a way to solve conflict. Tell her that terrorists are people who want to make people afraid, like a bully at school. Don't forget to teach her that not all Muslims & Arabs are terrorists, and even though it's radical Islam (you don't have to use that term, she certainly won't grasp that) that's responsible for the terrorist attacks, we should ALWAYS respect people of other cultures and religions.

Answer 3

I really struggled explaining it to my 9 year old begining 5 years ago. I still recall him asking at age 4 - "Daddy how did the Pilot get out of the plane?" on Sept. 11th.

What I ended up doing is answering his questions as they came up. I watched some of the 5 year anniversary programs and he watched and asked questions. As he spent more and more time he started to get the whole picture and his questions were more specific.

I would focus on what happened and not why at first, people working together and the shock everyone felt. As she becomes more aware the let her ask questions, I guess my best advice is be honest.

Answer 4

My daughter is 7 years old too. When we watched United 93 she always asked "Why would people hurt America?" I also tried to explain that not all people are good. She seems to know about the war on terror (because her best friend's dad is fighting in the war) and she always says "what are terrorists?" My daughter is in second grade (is yours?) and I decided to tell her the truth but not all at once, slowly.

Hope it works out,
KitKat

Answer 5

No dont say anything about "war" or "terrorist" as those would be confusing. Just tell her that someone wanted to do harm to the US and this was their way of trying to hurt us as the US. Answer all those things as simply as you can .THis would be hard on a child .. as in i can just imagine what you might be going through. You must of lost a loved one in those towers. Its hard for us as adults to realize what happened much less an innocent child. I dont have a lot of wisdom to tell you but i have faith in you that you will get the word across that she will understand. You might tell her that you and the rest of the US didnt know what was about to take place and this was just something that was wrong in what happened. Dont lay the blame on anyone to her as she wont understand. Hope this helps and pray that you will find the right words for her to understand.

Answer 6

i was 7 years old too when i watched it. it was especially terrible since it happened the day aftermy birthday. i couldnt understand why people were so sad, and i got upset since i was a bit ignored that day. i didnt really understand what was going on, but as I've grown up and given more info, im more informed. Ive watched movies and specials on 9/11, and i even cried over the thousands who lost their lives that dreadful day. so the best advice i can say is to wait. she wont fully understand the depth of it til she gets older. give him or her time. it'll be better too if she didnt know that people can be so cruel. let her be innocent of the situation for know. Hope this helps! :]

Answer 7

I would use terms she can understand. She is not old enough to understand "Terrorism" but she is old enough to understand "bad people" who want to hurt innocent people and most of us have a hard time understanding what makes the "bad people" so bad. Good luck. Being a parent is the hardest job there is and kids certainly do not come in instruction manuals.

Answer 8

I reccomend saying to her that these really bad people hated the united states and they wanted to kill a lot of people-so they ran a plane into the building to kill the people-the thing is that bombs didn't go off utnil a few minutes later. This is why we had many people to go over to Iraq and fight. I hope this helps, i'm not that great at explaining things, but my brother loves to read about it--he's very politial. Good luck!

Answer 9

Try telling her that there were really bad people that wanted to hurt good people. So we have special people that go and find the bad ones and make them go to jail. If she doesn't understand jail then try something along the lines of our special people find them and make sure they can't hurt good people. Explain to her that the people that hit the trade center towers were not good people (If you believe in God then it helps to tell them that they didn't love God. For some reason little kids totally understand that.) Good luck It is a tough situation.

Answer 10

I am not saying you were "wrong" to let her watch...just that I think it is a bit difficult to explain to a seven yr old. Heck, I am 30 and it is still so hard for me to understand something so evil.