Watching the news and a solider made a statement, I am paraphrasing “I tried to explain to my son that I was leaving for Iraq. He doesn’t completely understand but he knows I am off fighting the bad guys”. The bad guys? What are the bad guys? I understand it is difficult to explain war or the military to a child. I don’t know what it is like to leave your child to go fight in a war. But I question if teaching our children that it is us verses those bad guys is really the right method.
If I were in the military or my partner was in the military I am not sure I would know how to explain it to my child.
So true. We know people who had young children, babies, who both left for Iraq at the same time, voluntarily. They both left their babies for over a year. I just don’t understand it.
As far as explaining it to a child, it is rough. I hear my students comment from time to time about how we have to fight the bad guys. I don’t want to make a political stand in my classroom but I also don’t think it is not right for them to be fed information in that manner either.