Handling Tragedies with Kids

Talking to children during tragedies can be difficult. We recognize families have different ways to do this, but want to provide some helpful information to those who aren’t sure what to say.

Dr. Rebecca Norton shares three tips:

1. Calm Yourself Before You Talk to Your Kids
   Your children are going to look to you and they are going to look at how does Mommy or Daddy really feel and that’s where they’re going to take their queue about how they should feel.
2. Limit TV and Internet exposure
   Once you’ve seen what you need to see in order to keep yourself and your family safe, turn it off.
3. Help Them Get Back Into the Role of Helper
   If somehow they’ve gotten scared or they’re afraid something bad’s going to happen to them – help them see themselves as a helper. Help the think of something they could do. They could write a note to the people or draw a picture. It will help them move from being afraid to moving to be someone who helps in a scary situation.

Listen to Troy’s audio interview with Dr. Norton.

And, our friends at Focus on the Family have a free printable booklet, “Parenting in the Midst of Tragedy“ that you can download here.