How to Talk With Kids About Tough Issues
Parents play a key role in helping their children learn to face life’s challenges.
A mother from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tells of arranging a funeral for her beautiful 21-year-old daughter.” The cause of death: AIDS. “A parent could not have wished for a more loving, talented, and motivated child,” she says. A moment of youthful indiscretion and recklessness caused her to contract the AIDS virus. The young man with whom she hoped to spend the rest of her life also became infected.
The emotional impact on that woman’s family was considerable. “You cannot imagine the toll this has taken on our entire family. She had three younger siblings, the youngest being 11 years old. Our heartbreak and sorrow have been overwhelming.” Not only did the mother have to deal with her daughter’s illness, but she had to explain AIDS to the younger siblings: how it is contracted, how it can be prevented, and the terrible end result when AIDS cannot be successfully treated.
That woman is a prime example of the fact that today’s children face a wide range of tough issues, including death, divorce, terrorism, drugs, alcoholism, sex, homosexuality, war, famine, sexual abuse, suicide, and AIDS. Teaching children about the “real world” is harder than ever. Here are ways to talk about tough issues in a way that your kids will listen and learn.
* Maintain openness to your children. Do all you can to convey to your children that you are open and available to hear their questions on any topic at any time. If children sense parents are closed to them and their concerns, they will seek answers from their peers and frequently acquire inaccurate information. This will result in children becoming anxious, confused, and ill-prepared to deal with life’s stresses and strains. So, put clown your newspaper and turn off the TV. Stop doing chores for a few moments. Put aside all other thoughts and activities in order to listen to your kids. Be guided by this biblical insight: “Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it” (Proverbs 22:6, NLT).(*)