anti-semitic 8 y/o - please help

[perplexednanny]

Hi,

I'm new to Mumsnet, and rather than being a mum I'm a p/t nanny to an 8 y/o boy.

He's quite difficult in general and often badly behaved, but recently he has started saying the most terrible things about Jews and I don't really know how to deal with this, never having seen this sort of behaviour before! Yesterday, he actually said that the Jews deserved to be killed in the Holocaust. And not in a 'saying offensive things to get attention' way - he meant it. I was absolutely appalled and told him that this was a terrible thing to say, that Jewish people were just like him except their religious beliefs mean they have special rules about food (really not the time to go into a theological discussion about Judaism!) etc etc, but he was absolutely adamant that he hated Jews before carrying on with a load of racial slurs.

His parents aren't racist at all so I don't think that can be the source. Although his school is a private CofE the other pupils are of all faiths and in fact at one point the school actually had a special boarding house for boys who were Orthodox Jews!

I'm really struggling to know what to do here - I actually find what he says highly offensive as my partner's family were refugees from the Nazi regime during the war.

Any advice greatly appreciated!

If all he is saying is "People who believe in God are stupid. Jews should have fought back instead of just praying. So they were stupid and deserved to be killed.", I wouldn't worry too much about it. It sounds like an extension of his God argument, rather budding racism.

At 8 years, I was also telling whoever would care to listen that I thought people who believe in God were stupid. "Can't be too bright if they believe in something for which there is no proof" and all that. [We were living in a Muslim country at that point, just to show you how oblivious to the shock from his statements an 8 year old can be]

Rather than showing a big reaction (psychologists, etc), imho, the better strategy would be to play his own game. Debate with him on this. "Let's assume people who believe in God are not very intelligent. Do you think all people who are not of great intelligence could rightly be killed?" (No.) "Okay. Do you think people who cannot fight their oppressors, perhaps because they are not strong enough, deserve to be tortured and killed?" (No.) Etc etc.

He hasn't just pulled this anti-semitism out of the clear blue sky. It's coming from somewhere. Talk to his parents a.s.a.p. He does sound like a very disturbed child.