How To Explain Osama's Death To Your Kids

Being a parent of young children is a lot like walking around wrapped in a thick woolly blanket. You can dimly see and hear things going on outside your household, but you are so exhausted from prolonged sleep deprivation and distracted by small people trying to climb your leg that it takes something really exceptional to make it through the parenting haze. With the royal wedding on Friday and the death of Osama bin Laden on Sunday, this past weekend has been a highly newsworthy one.

My husband and I openly watch television in front of both our kids, although they are generally bored by "Mommy and Daddy TV." My older child especially will wail, "NObama, NObama" when her father turns on CNN. But, at almost five-years-old, she brings her own special perspective to what she sees on TV.

This morning, she asked me, "Is that a bad man?" when she saw pictures of Osama Bin Laden. I explained to her that yes, he was a bad man who hurt a lot of mommies and daddies but he's gone now and won't hurt anyone anymore. My children don't understand the concept of death, which they had to deal with when their beloved dog disappeared overnight almost two years ago. To this day, my daughter frequently talks about how she lost her dog and how she needs to go get him. I am not sure where she thinks Schmenkie has gone; on a world tour? To live with another family? In an obscure way, this gives me comfort since it means she hasn't forgotten him.

My younger child echoes what his sister says but I am pretty sure his recollections are not as strong as hers. However, both children have excellent memories so I need to be careful what I say to them. Death is a very serious topic, and I hope I won't have to deal with it again until my children are much older. I am not even going to discuss the concept of retaliatory killing with my toddlers.

However, toddler playground logic dictates that if one child is hurting someone else, that person needs to stop. Applying those principles to the death of a mass murderer works for both me and them.

To read more about what makes Kathy Zucker tick, check out her blog at http://momcondoliving.com/ and follow her at http://twitter.com/kathyzucker