I do have a child with some anxiety issues, so there's that. I could be accused of sheltering, I suppose. We do not watch the news or listen to NPR with DD around. I always answer questions honestly and pretty completely. DD is certainly aware of some basic ugly facts of history. However, to me there is a big difference between "Here are the facts of what happened" and "Here, let's watch a documentary with graphic footage of deaths." Similarly, there are books I'm not giving her at this time. She may come across them but I hope not yet. Her teacher gave her Anne Frank last year and I very earnestly asked her not to read it yet (she actually chose not to, to my surprise). She isn't ready. Some kids are walking live nerves with a raw heart very close to the surface. DD was crying about a dying dragonfly in the garden the other day. She cries about plastic in the ocean killing sea turtles. BTW, she has lost family members, so it's not that she's a child with no experience of true loss.
