Our son has always pondered and asked questions about death and other deep/advanced issues. We are atheists, but have sent him to church a few times with his grandmother to satisfy some of his curiosity about religion. At one point he was shaping up to be quite sensitive, like I was as a young child; for example, I remember being obsessed with stuff like nuclear weapons, to the point of being too distressed to sleep well for a long time.
I embarked on a relentless campaign to desensitize and toughen him up, which seems to be working. He can now watch the news, and has some pretty violent favorite movies that I think would distress many kids his age (I shield him from over-the-top gore and other troubling content). He remains intensely interested in ethical questions, but today in a lot of respects is an ordinary rough-and-tumble little boy who likes to play with toy weapons.
