How do I explain my church's anti-abortion display to my 7year old?

Question

PLEASE I do not want anyone's opinion on abortion!!!!
*** This is a PARENTING question! ***
My (Roman Catholic) church is putting up an anti-abortion display. For those of you unfamiliar with it, they take the entire front "yard" of the church and post hundreds of little crosses. I just KNOW my daughter is going to ask. I am not ready to have a sex-talk with her, so I need a way to explain it that 1. doesn't use sex, 2. does not scare her, 3. will make her feel like I answered her question fully, and hopefully 4. will defend her psyche against getting scared or confused if someone at her (Catholic) school says something like "baby killers" or "mommies who kill their babies" or something else that might scare her. I'd prefer something that helps her remember that God is kind and merciful. Thank you.

Answer 1

All you have to say is that those crosses are for the memory of all of the little babies that die every year. You needn't say anymore than that.

I'm familiar with the church doing this. We're Catholic as well. :)

Answer 2

Not every kid who is going to be born is wanted. We wanted you very much, but not all mommies and daddys feel that way. Some mommies and daddies don't think they are ready to take care of a child, and sometimes when they do not feel ready to have a baby they have an operation that ends the baby's life before the baby is born. at our church, most of us believe that this is wrong, that it is something that God does not want us to do. So these crosses are a symbol of how many little babies never get to be born.

The operation that some of these women have to get rid of the baby is called an abortion. We must understand that you were very precious to us and we always wanted you, but not every little kid is wanted, and not every mommy and daddy feel ready for a baby. We must try to pray for these people and forgive them.

Answer 3

I've had to go there with my kids, ages 8, 5 and 3.5 already.

The crosses do NOT mean you have to have the sex talk. What I told my kids was that each one of those crosses represents a mom who was in trouble and didn't have anybody to help her when she was going to have a baby. I told them that the babies died, and the church put out the crosses in memory of the babies who died. I assured my kids that the babies are all in heaven and Jesus and His mommy take very, very good care of the babies, but we need to pray so that any mom who needs help to have her baby gets the help that she needs.

We also talked about ways we can help moms have babies, and the kids helped me go through their old baby things for a "baby shower" clothing drive for our local crisis pregnancy. This way, it was a positive experience -- my kids learned that they need to help other people. It wasn't scary and we didn't have "the sex talk."

I personally would NEVER tell my kids that "some moms don't want their babies" for two reasons. First, I wouldn't ever want them to think it would be possible for me not to want them. Second, most women get abortions because they think they DON'T have a choice, not because they do. They feel forced into it by circumstances beyond their control. So I don't want to present it as oh well, a mom can just decide to abandon her baby like it's okay.

Answer 4

I think you can just explain to her that when some women are pregnant they don't want to be, and a doctor ends the pregnancy so they don't have the baby. Tell her the church feels sad for the babies that didn't get to be born. Then you can tell her that God loves the mothers and the babies, and that God will judge people when they die and it's not our place to judge on this earth.

Answer 5

well you can tell her that the crosses represent women who could not bring their little ones into the world at that point in time. you can also tell her that these women are not bad people, and that they let their little ones go back to 'god' or 'jesus' or whoever, because they weren't ready for them on earth. that's what i would tell a child who was curious about such a display.

Answer 6

You need to tell your daughter the truth. Tell her that abortion is real. Tell her that some people think that saving a fetus is the most important thing in the world. Tell her that other people think that saving children is more important than saving a fetus. Tell her that some call pro lifers murderers and some call pro choice people murderers and that the truth will be revealed to her by God.
I would also ask that you read my page http://www.prolifeismurder.com and filter anything there so that she understands why some people believe being pro life is actually a deadly choice.

Answer 7

Okay.. you could say to her, "A long time ago, before you were a baby, you were in my tummy. Sometimes people do bad things to babies when they're in their mommy's tummy and they end up in heaven before they have a chance to grow up. The crosses are to remember those babies."

Answer 8

You could always say something along the lines of
"Sometimes mommies don't always want their babies and the church is trying to tell those mommies what a blessing the babies actually are"

Wow,
your situation is touch.

Answer 9

You need to explain to her straight out, at her level. And of course you need to explain to her about sex - she's well old enough to hear an explanation from you at this level, and according to your family values and religion.
Just explain that some people think that killing babies is fine, but that you don't. That every child conceived by a loving mother and father in a marriage is precious and welcome.

Answer 10

I too am RC and have had to explain this to our children...Just tell them that some women dont want their babies so they kill them while they are inside their tummy..It's very sad, and maybe these women dont understand what they are doing, so we must pray very hard for them!