The recent terror attacks in London and Manchester have left parents with a difficult dilemma: how do we explain such atrocities to our children without terrifying them?
Children are naturally curious and will always ask questions about such events, so it is impossible to avoid the subject.
Denise Van Outen has revealed how she tackled the topic of the recent terror attacks in Manchester and London with her young daughter, Betsy, aged seven.
Denise told OK! that she wanted to make her daughter aware of what happened without frightening her or causing her distress. As Betsy’s school had held a minute’s silence for the victims of the Manchester bombing, she thought this would be a good time to discuss it further.
“Obviously, when you're a parent you protect your child because you don't want to scare them, but I do explain it to her because, obviously, at school after the Manchester bombing, they did a minute's silence and they explained what happened to the children,” she explained.
"So, I did explain it to Betsy and she knows what happened, and I think that's really good the school did that. I'm glad that they did."
Denise believes there’s a “thin line” when it comes to talking about these subjects with children.
She said: "Children do need to be aware, they've grown up in a different generation. And as much as you want to wrap your kids up in cotton wool, you have to make sure they're knowledgeable and understand and become aware of what's going on in society.
"But you have to do it in a way that's not going to frighten them and that they understand, so yeah, we do have conversations about it. I don't hide it from her."
While Denise doesn’t let her daughter watch news coverage of these events, she always tries to highlight to her the important role the emergency services play in the aftermath of an attack.
"I make sure she's not watching the news or seeing anything too graphic, but we discuss it and we discuss it in a way where she knows that not everyone's bad, and we talk about how great the emergency services were.
"She understands that, although bad stuff is going on around us, there are always more good people who are there to help,” Denise concluded.
Have you had to have a similar conversation with your children, mums? Let us know.
