Nasty Little Man

This will knock you on your (behind)

Try explaining September 11, 2001, to a three-year-old. Tonight my daughter was in the room while I was watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann and the story on more 911 tapes from NYC on 9/11 came on. Here's sort of how the conversation went:

Child: (sees street scene) "Daddy, what's that?"
Dad: "That's trash on the street, honey."
"Why?"
"A building fell down."
"What are they doing?" (referring to firefighters on the street)
"Trying to help people."
"Why?"
"Because the people needed help."
(pause)
"Why did the building fall down?"
(pause)
"Because an airplane hit it."
"The building shook and fell down when an airplane hit it."
"Yes."
(pause)
"Why did an airplane hit the building?"
(Dad puts arm around child) "I'll explain it to you some other day but not right now, OK?"
"Ok, you can tell me another time."

In between, I said a few times, "This almost never happens." I thought of saying, "This only happened one time," but then I thought, 'How do I explain earthquakes?' It's also not clear if she realizes that some of what we see on television is fiction and some is non-fiction.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 9:53 PM