School letting 8 year old watch newsround

[rhonyvsrhobh]

I think that it is important for children to know what is happening in the world - to an extent.

My 8 year old, primary 4 daughter came home today very upset and worried as she had seen on Newsround which is shown at her school that Russia have invaded Ukraine. She has asked me several times if we were going to get 'hit'. I have tried to reassure her that it won't happen (what else can I say) and not to worry. She then asked me to swear on her life that we won't be affected by it. I said I couldn't swear on her life but not to worry, it won't happen.

She is very anxious and I just don't think something so serious should have been shown to 8 year old children. I feel so sorry for them, they've had covid and now this!

AIBU to contact the school about this or am I being precious?

Oh do piss of @Donelurking**

How bloody rude!
The OP literally asked AIBU to contact the school about this or am I being precious?

This is age appropriate news.

Don't keep your child ignorant of the world outside their house.

@NoWigNoWit

Oh do piss of *@Donelurking*

OP I agree, mine are 10 and 12 and no news is on in the house when they’re about. They both suffer with anxiety and at the moment they don’t need all the details.

Love your username! rhobh all the way 🤣

I am not surprised your children are anxious if you try to hide things from them. You need to teach them the skills to deal with the difficult things in life and manage their anxieties not try to wrap them in cotton wool.

I think it's much better for children to be told.what.is happening in a way they understand rather than them picking up half the story and imaging things. Newsround does that very well.
Unfortunately children live in the world and horrible things happen it's not possible to shield them completely from life.

Most schools I've worked in use newsround. It's generally really age appropriate and used as a platform for discussion.

Newsround delivers in a gentle way. I wouldn’t worry.

My 6 year old watches it at school, i think it's a good thing for them.

My 8 year old watched the morning news with me before school. He watched the 6pm news with me too.

If you're 8 year old is this upset at the nessriund version then that's a sign to me that you dont let her watch the news or see what goes on in the world normally.

You are being totally unreasonable.

My child has been watching newsround at school since about age 6. It’s the best way to quash playground rumours from kids who’ve heard adult news and possibly misunderstood or misinterpreted. Best the kids know the truth in an age appropriate way. It’s on iplayer, I’d advise you watch it again with her to see how they explain it and talk about it.

Our 7yos watch it at school all the time. Of course it's appropriate.

She’s going to hear about it in the playground, better to hear the facts using child friendly language rather than some garbled frightening sensationalised nonsense

Precious.

DS is yr2. They watch it. He loves it. He's been watching at home over half term saying the news is important.

The thing with this story is its potentially so huge, you can't avoid it. At some point she will start to see stuff.

Newsround at least approaches the subject at a childs level. If she then askes questions about it and is anxious its your job as a parent to address that properly. Not pretend the subject doesn't exist.

My 7 and 10 year old watch the normal news most nights (headlines plus first 2 ish reports. We aren't in the UK so no newsround). Only exception is if its covering murder/rape (I read online news so known what the main topics are). We also stopped for a while when all the stories were covid and lockdowns in 2020 as one of them got too anxious.

It's brilliant for discussions and awareness of the world around them. Mine are currently growing up in a pretty privileged bubble and this helps them see the wider world.

@rainbowmash

8 year olds are the target demographic for Newsround.

Schools are supposed to teach children about the world using age-appropriate tools. That's their job, and that's what they're doing. It's a parent's job to teach them how to handle worrying subject matter.

Sounds like youre experiencing your own anxiety about world events (understandable) and projecting them onto your children (unreasonable)

Yes perhaps I am. Point taken from everyone, I haven't actually watched newround so should have maybe done that before jumping to conclusions

I am anxious about the goings on in the world and to be honest, other than telling my daughter it won't happen (even though I don't know that) I don't know what else to say or do to calm her.

Sorry but YABU and precious. Show DD a map so she understands how far away Ukraine is if she's worried!

Have you actually gone on the BBC Newsround website to see what she watched? Might set your mind at rest.

I can see the need for age appropriate information but in a class of 8 year olds some won’t be ready for this. Sex Ed is also a bit one size fits all.

I think schools should take the parents in and explain to them why it’s important, how to judge their child’s emotional readiness, appropriate language around tricky topics.

I don’t think it’s the schools place to take over all the parenting.

There are currently children IN UKRAINE. Poor little buggers.

What helps DD is to do something. So we gave money (mine and hers) to an Afghan women's charity when there was news about Afghanistan. If we talk about Ukraine we will do something to help them.

Keeps the focus external, focused on helping, and showing we have power to change things and help. Rather than an anxious internal focus on the safety of self.

Yes please watch it.

I think the school are being responsible, I remember when the Falklands war started and me being so worried about snippets I heard, I thought my dad was going to get conscripted! (He was 38 at the time so unlikely 🤣). Had I been talked through it more it may have helped me not to be as worried

@KatieMaurice would you rather they hear from another child that we are all going to get nuked!

Far better for a child of that age to hear about it in an age-appropriate way via Newsround than to pick it up from other kids or by overhearing adults and get anxious about the possibility of war here.

I was 7 when the Cuban missile crisis happened. I heard snippets on the news and was really frightened until my dad explained the issue to me, and showed me on a globe how far away Cuba was.

Something like Newsround would have been far better.

You are being very precious. Newsround is suitable for juniors up, so year 3 / primary 4. Watch today's episode on the iPlayer. It's a grand total of 8 minutes.

I mean this kindly but if your child is picking up on anxiety it's not coming from Newsround. You need to find ways to manage your own anxiety and not pass it on to her.

News round is aimed at 8+ and much better than them seeing the 6 o'clock news where they were showing gunfire and talking in an adult way, you need imo to follow up by talking to her.

Oh do piss of @Donelurking**

How bloody rude!
The OP literally asked AIBU to contact the school about this or am I being precious?

Not only that but everyone agreed with Donelurking (including me!)

@NoWigNoWit

Oh do piss of *@Donelurking*

OP I agree, mine are 10 and 12 and no news is on in the house when they’re about. They both suffer with anxiety and at the moment they don’t need all the details.

Love your username! rhobh all the way 🤣

No wonder they suffer from anxiety!

Newsround is excellent. My dd used to watch it when she was having her breakfast when we watched BBC Breakfast.

What you could do is watch it yourself every day then you could talk about it together over dinner.