When children reach the age of hearing and watching the news and understand what they said or those who are growing up from the other children of their friends, there are times when the news of terrorist attacks and wars in different countries affects the child.
For example, these days there was a lot of talk about the terrorist attacks that took place in Belgium at the airport, there is a 7-year-old child in Rwanda who watched the news on television but later revealed that he met it is unstable even if it is not at a high level.
The child’s parents found out that their child had a crisis because the child’s father had a trip to go abroad this weekend.
Later his parents came to ask him why he was left alone and he cried and told them that he was worried about the way their father was going to go abroad and there was no security at the local airports.
There are probably other children who are frightened by the news they hear. What can you do to protect your child from being disturbed by this information?
Medicinet.com offers the following advice for parents:
Let the child ask you what he wants after hearing the news: When the child hears such news, there are questions of curiosity the child feels so that he does not see the person asking him, which can cause him to be disturbed. If your child asks you questions, shut him up and answer and explain clearly to the extent of what he can understand.
Tell him comforting words: When a child hears bad news, he may be scared and feel that it will happen to some of his loved ones. At that time you are asked to reassure him that there is enough security and that even if it happened they have taken measures to manage security so that it will not happen again.
Explain to the child the consequences of fighting, killing each other, threats and other bad actions: When you talk to the child, that time would be a good time to explain why he should avoid conflicts with other children, the consequences of murder and other crimes. . Tell him that all of this will end if people live in peace and that peace comes from small things, and give him examples of good behavior when he plays with other children.
Try to control what children grow up in the media: It is not good for children to watch murder movies or to watch other videos that contain crime, people with severe injuries because it can affect them and they lose their sleep, stay awake, fear and more.
Help a child who has shown signs of trauma: There are children who listen to such news of terrorist attacks and war and show signs such as refusing to sleep where they sleep, wanting to follow you wherever you go, etc.
Try to avoid these changes and talk to him to find out what caused him because you may not even know that there is information that he has learned that scares him.
Take steps to talk to your child every day when you get home: There are some parents who do not know if their children have been exposed to the news because there is no time to talk to them.
So it is better to give yourself a chance to talk to the child every time you come home so that the child will have you as his friend, what he has encountered in his daily life he will immediately tell you and you will know where to ask for help because even if it is a rumor he will listen to the staff and anywhere else he is alone without you.
This is one of the ways you can protect your child from being disturbed by the news of terrorist attacks and wars happening around the world.
