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.

I would not have liked my children to hear somebody shouting this. Children of 7 and nine can do nothing about the situation in the middle east so I don't think they should need their awareness raised at that young age. That is my opinion. YANBU.

Old mum - I think that many peoples understanding of the region is more nuanced than you give credit for. Killing people from either side is abhorent. Just because some person does willy waving does not mean that we have to say it is right. It is not race based critisism - it is a piss poor situation based on historical shite because people in Europe felt guilt after Ww2. It is not the Palistinians fault it is Europe & the US's . Having said that bombing the end out of each other is not the way forward.

I'm 47 and there is next to nothing I can do about the situation in the ME other than donate money. I have no issue at all about explaining what is going on (as best as I am able in such a complex issue) to my 8 yr old ds. Although he did ask questions I struggled to answer.

oldmumsy , you mentioned earlier that "they" are not like "us" in the west....

You mentioned that you dont care a jot if palestinian babies die.

I am so pleased to say that "us" in the west are not like you!

Not in our name. Don't assume that "us" in the west will stand with you shoulder to shoulder because " they are not like us".

We are NOT on your side by default.

In fact, i am outraged by your government's complete disregard for palestinian babies, because we in the west recognise palestinians as humans too which you and your government does not!

Ds is six and recently half watched (ie played while I watched a documentary on Ian Brady and the moors killings and I told him about it (just the basics, missed out a lot of the details). He said how terrible it was and we talked about it but he understood that doesn't often happen. They are old enough to have the situation explained to them, yabu and precious.