How do you talk to your children about Ukraine?

[MrsPear]

They are 9 and 12. We quite happily discuss all sorts of world events. But this feels like something else and as the eldest reminded me ‘you said covid would blow over by summer and it took 2 years’! Any ideas

Mb76 I hope your family stays save

MrsPear I would turn off some adult news but it's hard to gauge how much is too much isn't it?

My kids are 5 and 3. We watch the news with dinner each night and we answer questions they have. Most goes over their head.

I think I'll put newsround on for them tonight and see if they have any more questions from that.

I'd just turned 8 when the Bosnian war started and I remember seeing in the news about British people being told to leave and people running through a grave yard under what I now know was gun fire.

So much else went over my head or I don't remember. I imagine the same will be true for my kids really as they watch this. We always watched the news with dinner as a child don't think it did me any harm.

@Sunshinedreaming2022

We watch the news and discuss it over dinner. If your not worried and scared then they won’t be, but if you are feeling and acting compassionately, they will be too. Maybe discuss it with them then suggest you make a donation to help the people of Ukraine? I have an 18yr old who is doing politics A-level and we can’t avoid discussing it around my youngest who is 6, so just make sure they know they are safe and OK

That's very true. We try to stay factual and simple. We shield them from our concern until they need to be aware of being cautious and even then it's not a scary message.

They knew about 'the virus' and they knew it was making some people very sick and sadly was killing people. We didn't make it a bit scary thing for them though we were scared by in March 2020.

My sons were attracted to WW2 planes and playfighting. I’ve tried to talk to them about how damaging these things can be - to show them that real people die and have life changing injuries when weapons are used, it’s not something to play.

I decided to talk to my 9 year old today abd he was fine. I was factual and non emotional. From his POV it’s happening elsewhere so I suspect he feels safe. Obviously I’ve left it like that.