Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Why did he do that?
We've been trying to down play (conceal) the whole VA Tech shooting this week. Things like this in the news tend to upset Nick a great deal. This is an unusual action from me considering how open we are with the kids and how we want them to be aware of the world around them. Nick is very sensitive and compassionate and he takes a lot of things too seriously. What makes this even weirder is Nick has said he wants to go to VA Tech when he grows up. I have no idea why, I'm sure it's a great school, but it's likely because he saw their basketball team win once ... or he likes their mascot.
As was bound to happen Nick came into the room while Lisa and I had CNN on .. I guess we weren't paying attention but he sat down and started to soak it in. At one point he asked "Why did he do that?" Without thinking too much I quipped "He was sick in the head." Nick took that literally and asked "Was he going to die?? Did he have a brain tumor?" I then had to try to explain in nine year old terms how we didn't know why he did what he did and we'll never know. How do you tell a kid that sometimes people do completely irrational things for no reason and usually without warning?
If he's going to stress about something I'd rather it be whether or not he's going to get a Wii for his birthday.
#posted by Rob Roschewsk @ 9:27 PM
Comments:
Kids take our phrases so literally, like "sick in the head" -- can't be too careful! :-)
We spent a whole evening playing with a friend's Wii recently (ok, does that sound REALLY weird, or what?), and it's got to be one of the best-designed entertainment devices I've ever seen. I vote for that too.
