To think protesters shouting"stop killing children"should have thought twice about doing it outside the only two kids shoe shops in town?

[PolkadotCircus]

Trying to get my head round this so advice please.

I have a lot of sympathy re the Palestine situation however today I just had to get ds 9 new shoes.Soooo I dragged the 3 dc(9,9and7) to the only two kids shoe shops in town outside of which was a protest re the current situation in Palestine.The above slogan was pretty much the only thing being shouted.

One of my dc is very sensitive.Whilst we try and explain world events there are things we have to shield him from as he worries,gets scared and can think too much.The other 2 are fine.

Soooo this protest was literally below the window of said shoe shop.Ds froze and bombarded me with questions which I tried to answer.He has since been asking a lot this afternoon re "where do they kill children,why" etc.You couldn't really escape it in town as it was up and down the same street(to be fair the only place to protest).

Now I know my dc are lucky enough to live in a safe country and I know kids shouldn't be sheltered forever from nasty world events(I've explained the crux of the 2nd WW,Afganistan etc)however surely it's up to a parent as to how much you expose kids to and kids differ.

Maybe the phrasing should have been changed?

I'm very pro the right to protest though so can't quite get my head round whether I was right to be annoyed.

Maybe I wasn't,thoughts please.

And they obviously targeted the children shoe shops for maximum effect! I.e parents are more likely to care etc, without even thinking of the effect on the kids. That isn't on. I am all for protest, but you have to be considerate not to upset little ones like this.

And Apostrophe scaring kids in this country does what exactly?

It certainly didn't help their cause as we legged it along with every other parent in the vacinity.If they had chosen slogans more appropriate for a Saturday morning on a busy high street packed with young families they would have raised far more awareness.

Every child in the world doesn't need the horrors of war shoved in their faces.Teaching children the evils of the world needs to be handled carefully.

So terrifying every sensitive child is reasonable and appropriate? I REALLY don't think so.

Raise awareness by all means but don't scare children. Reasonable and necessary. Child friendly information would go a long way to helping.

I've done my fair share of demonstrations and have seen people shouting inappropriate gubbage being lynched because it doesn't help anyone!

Hearing "stop killing children" repeated over and over didn't confront my dc with harsh realities it scared the shit out of him.

Are you in Exeter, by any chance?

Just be glad you and your children don't live in Palestine. Fgs your precious children will survive a scary protest. People are dying Fgs and you care about a protest being held in the wrong location. Get a grip on reality love. It's a tough bloody world out there.

Errr thankfully Lunatic in this country we do.

Being slightly considerate of the young audience would have helped the cause far more.I grabbed a leaflet and zoomed off,pretty sure many others didn't bother.

How about educating people as to what is happening. What happened to stuffing giving people info? I feel old. Demos I went to always gave info out to help their cause.

Hmm OP I also think you are being precious.

If they set up camp outside a nursery or something and shouted that - maybe. But from the sounds of it they were in a public high st and just happened to be outside a couple of shops aimed at children. Obviously I don't know the layout, but that's how it sounds.

If they were actively targetting children as their audience? - I'd say YANBU. But I think they just happened to be in public. You can't control what people say in public as long as it's not actively racist/ threatening.

And I do think it's worth being frank about: 'children are dying' has nowhere near the impact of 'stop killing children' - that's the point. Sorry, but other people's right to make a really serious, necessary political point is not trumped by your child's right to buy shoes in peace and quiet. It just isn't.

Oh I know that thanks heals as do my dc but I'm educating them in a way that suits them as children.

There is no benefit to scaring kids when educating them(schools generally handle the 2nd WW carefully) and as I said it made many parents leave thus kind of hindering the cause.

Protesters shout to get maximum impact. You could take your son away and explain to him. There are some children in the world who don't have that.

And seriously this "Every child should be able to go shopping without being scared." WTF? Children starving to death and being killed and you're worried about a child being a bit scared by shouting??!

Errr thankfully Lunatic in this country we do.

Well, no, we don't. For example, my sister nearly died of cancer when I was about 4-5. My parents didn't have a choice about explaining death, hospitals, and fatal illnesses.

Plenty of people die in this country from violent causes. I live in a city with a large naval base and parents here have to go away on tours of duty. Their children may well have to learn about death and violence early.

Polka we can't control when our kids are exposed to death and violence even in this country, I know my kids have been exposed to death from a very early age, I know many kids who have been exposed to violence either by witnessing accidents or domestic violence or have been on the receiving end of it. Must be nice to live in your world.

Something very similar was happening in Exeter this morning. I don't think the protesters in Exeter would have been aware that they were between the town's only two children's shoe shops - they were almost all students, the protest was clearly student-organised, and students would be utterly unaware of the significance of being between two children's shoe shops - they would just have been aware that they had placed themselves where Princesshay joins the High Street, and thus where they would be seen by most people.
It's a shame if your children felt alarmed, but I do think that nine is old enough to be beginning to be aware that horrible things happen in the world, and that some people feel strongly enough about them to protest in public.

Crash certainly wasn't the shouting but the content.They've heard many a demo we've stuck around for.

Yes Missy it is.Have worked with kids who have witnessed violence.Thankfully they are in the minority and I'm simply not seeing the point of all kids coming face to face with it.

You are being unreasonable and precious.Some kids are actually suffering this horror and you are objecting to your precious little bunnies even hearing about it!

But, Polka, your kids weren't coming into contact with actual violence - merely with people shouting about it. Completely different.

We don't all get the chance to decide when and where to tackle the subject of death or violence

Errr thankfully Lunatic in this country we do.

WTF are you going on about then? ^^

YABU.

The protestors may well have been there for the reason that children will ask their parents questions about what they're protesting about. Adults are quite adept at ignoring things they don't want to see. The protestors are trying to make people think.

Trust me,having your house shelled and child killed is far more horrific than your dc being a bit upset when shoe shopping.

no as I said they have heard watered down versions but they haven't heard "stop killing children" shouted over and over in their busy high street.

Still not hearing the actual point of young kids hearing this phrase shouted over and over.What benefit will it have made?As far as I could see most families didn't stay to listen and kids hearing it will have got completely the wrong end of the stick.I doubt many families had a long in depth discussion re the ME after with their young dc after.

When I've discussed it with my dc they may have seen non graphic footage of both countries and we've tried to explain the situation as a whole.Far more beneficial than hearing "stop killing children" shouted over and over again.

Missy my point is in this country we don't have to rub kids faces in it-thankfully.

I'm kind of old school like wewere and thought it rather amateur I guess-and counterproductive.

Really OP your post does make you sound incredibly precious.As mentioned above children are being slaughtered but sod them you just NEED to buy your privileged children a new pair of shoes???
How depressing that instead of empathy and sadness for the cause you are complaining about how your children will be affected.
At 9 your child is old enough to be taught about the situation, yes it's not how you would have chosen to do it, but I would have thought your child seeing that there are people passionate enough to stand up for injustice would give them some faith in humankind. Perhaps the more you shelter them the less likely they are to trust you to tell them the truth.