There was some debate in our household on Friday about whether it was the right thing to do to tell our 8-year-old son about the shootings in Connecticut. We unanimously decided that he should know. Even though he's only 8, and I don't want to scare him, I wanted to be the first one to tell him. I didn't want him to go back to school today and find out about it from some kid who has cable tv (we don't), and then have questions that I wouldn't be there to answer for him.
His only burning question was, WHY? He wanted to know why the man who shot those teachers and students did what he did. If I was 8 years old, that would be my first question too. It was still my question as a junior in high school when the Columbine shootings happened. Even as a teenager, I still had no concept of why anyone would do something like that. So I had to give my son the same answer that my Dad gave me back then... "Just be thankful that you don't understand. Because not being able to understand why someone would have the ability to do something like that means that you don't have the ability to think like them, and you should be thankful for that."
So hear I am again, now a grown woman, married, with 2 children, still completely stunned, disbelieving that anyone could do such a thing, and being so thankful that I still don't understand "why?"
Thanks for stopping by,
-Lindsey
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