too young for the news?

[allyray231]

I wanted to ask you ladies of older children a question. My niece is 10 years old and when my mom called her last night she was crying. My mom asked her what was wrong and she said she had been watching the news and saw something about Iraq and it upset her. My first thought was why at 10 is she watching news and images of war on TV at night?

Am I wrong? Should a 10 year old watch and know what is going on?

TIA!

[tlew12778]

I'm not a mom but the first war in Iraq started when I was around that age. For our social studies homework one night, we had to watch the news, and do a current events project on what we saw.

Personally, kids nowadays are learning a lot more a lot earlier (I see this with my nieces and nephews who range in age from 8-20). I don't think it's inappropriate for a 10 year old to watch the news. You cannot keep kids sheltered forever and they need to start learning about politics at some point.

[mamax2]

I'm not a mother of a child that age either, but my first thought was "Did she see the news at home or school?" TVs are in most classrooms these days and in many public schools, they receive extra funding via forced viewing of 'Channel One' news programs. So, even if you didn't want your kid watching the news, their school might not be supporting that.

IMO, I would limit news-watching. I mean, there's news and there's gory details, kwim? I wouldn't want to expose my kid to stuff that's going to give them nightmares no matter how relevant it is to politics, social studies, etc. That said, I think reading the paper and watching news WITH your child (so you can explain certain situations) is definitely beneficial as they reach pre-teen and teenage years.

[udsweetpea]

I was 9 when the first Iraq war was going on, and I watched the news about it all the time. Maybe your friend hasn't prepared her properly and talked about the war with her daughter, and this was the first thing she saw of it?

ETA- I haven't seen any gory news stories related to Iraq, so I'm not understanding what upset her so much.

[allyray231]

I don't really know what she was watching and if she was watching it with her parents or not but I know it was at home and not in school

[maggieb]

I was a fifth grade teacher before I began staying home with my children and fifth graders are 10-11 years old. At that age I would certainly let my child watch the news, but with my guidance and explanations. This is the age that children start to understand world issues, but need support and guidance from parents.

[allyray231]

I was a fifth grade teacher before I began staying home with my children and fifth graders are 10-11 years old. At that age I would certainly let my child watch the news, but with my guidance and explanations. This is the age that children start to understand world issues, but need support and guidance from parents.

Ah that is a great point maggieb. Maybe that is what I am worried about that her parents weren't with her. Have to try and find out more

Thanks!

[lady1297]

I watched the news from infancy on, as did my brother. My son knows that in the morning and when Daddy gets home, we watch the news. He's 2 1/2 and I don't htink that he's too young. I think the sooner you expose them to the world, the sooner they understand that there is a world out there. That being said, I don't think my son actually watches the news at this age. He is usually off playing in another part of the room.

[snowzilla]

I am a mother with three children, two of whom are 9 and 11. And yes, they watch the news with us frequently, and we discuss it frequently as well.

[Neen]

My 8 and 9 year olds will watch the news with me and they know that if they have any questions, they can ask, and I will do my best to answer.

[Renrel]

I only have a 3 yr old, and he usually does not get to watch any live tv, only video, but he happened to come into the room when DH was watching the news and we did not turn it off, so I found myself explain solders and war to him, which was not fun. Now he, I think due to that and a few other things that have been part if his learning experience the last few weeks, has started to incorporate a wee bit more of violence into his play. He wanted us to pretend we were lions the other day and "kill" daddy, which was a new and not very welcome turn in the play. But I also think that this type of play was a way for him to try and incorporate and understand violence and to some extend death and concepts in the world.

When he is 10 I expect him to see the sorrow and injust and at times necessity of war, crime and other difficulties of life, and have concerns about we as a family and a country are doing about them. I certainly expect that by age 10 he will be watching the news with supervision and that we will be talking in more depth about war, murder, theft, global warming, economic fairness ect. There are unfortunately kids his age and younger who are living with the realities of these things. I think he will need to know about the reality of the world in every increasing amounts in order to deal with it effectively as an adult. I also want him to understand that he is privledged and lucky and blessed to be living in a place where he feel relatively safe and secure and has rights which are mostly protected. Unless he is aware that other don't have these things he will take them for granted.

[Renrel]

I found the following website while doing some research regarding an issue I raised in another thread. Seemed on point for this thread so I am posting it here.


http://www.pbs.org/parents/talkingwithkids/news/

[NYN]

Some children are very sensitive to this type of thing. We make a strong effort not to expose my little cousin (now 11) to the news b/c she happened to see the tsunami coverage a few years back and literally lost sleep over it. For days she would wake up crying hysterically saying "those poor people" and really crying about it. Since then we pick and choose what to talk to her about. For example, I explained Katrina to her, even though it devastated her completely, b/c I didn't want her going to school without that knowledge. However, most local news stories about babies being dumped in trash compactors and the like I feel she doesn't need to know. Sometimes the news makes me so sick to my stomach I don't want to expose her to it at all but as somone else said, you can't raise your children in a bubble. My cousin doesn't have her mother present and her father works a lot. It would be nice to think that all children have the option of watching the news with their parents present to discuss it with them but unfortunately that isn't the reality in this day and age. B/c of that we pick and choose what she can and can not watch on TV. It never would have occured to me to put the news on the "no" list but in this case, it has worked for us.

[allyray231]

Thanks guys. NYN I think that is a good point. My niece is very sensitive about certain things. I guess her watching is not an issue, I just hope her mom was with her at the time.