Hello lovely ladies,
My son who is 7, has been asking alot of questions about the riots and why they are happening, and certainly about the violence that he has seen on the news recently (not that I encourage him to watch, but he has seen it)
I was a bit unsure of how to respond? Luckily he has never really seen any sort of racism at his school. He has a very diverse group of friends and throughout his grade at school, and has never thought of anyone from a differing ethnic background (to him) as anything other than Australian. I myself am extremely passionate about Indigenous rights so he has no real understanding of this topic. (Please don't get me wrong here, I know it still very much exists in Aust and I am disgusted by it)
But to the question... how have others explained racism, or violence against a minority to a child? Or how would you? (What a crazy year it must be for little ones)
Sorry, that was so long.. Thanks for reading!
Sending 💕 to all.
This is a place where women from different backgrounds, cultures and beliefs come together to support one another judgement free.
1 Replies
Racism has just always been something we've talked about with our kids, pretty much from the time they were old enough to start noticing different ethcicities.
My kids are indigenous, also a little older than your son, so that has made explaining this situation to our kids somewhat easier as it's really just been an extension of things we've already talked about.
My advice is to be as honest as you can be in an age appropriate way.
Encourage him to ask questions but don't be afraid to tell him if you don't have an answer or if you don't entirely know how to explain something.
Educate! You could also ask his teachers for some advice on how to approach it. My kids have all had really deep and powerful class discussions about this lead/guided by their teachers, which I think is amazing and it's really helped my kids further their understanding of the issue.
Don't forget to comfort him. This is terrifying for us adults, it would be even more so for kids who are just getting contextless snippets of information or footage.