Mom winced as she glanced at the front page of the newspaper this morning.
"Jeffs convicted for role in child's rape," screamed the headlines in size 24 font, reporting on the sentence handed down to a leader of a polygamous sect.
Mom's first instinct was to throw the front page into the recycling bin, before it even made it to the kitchen table.
If dad hadn’t been asleep, she would have thrust the newspaper under his nose and said, “See? This is why I don’t encourage Anu to read the newspaper.”
Her nine-year-old is far too young to add the word ‘rape’ to his budding vocabulary.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Too fast, too soon
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9 comments:
yeah, he doesn't need to.
Last summer I tried sticking with just the Business and kids section and Style. It helped...
Or the sports section, rads. Nobody reads the Style section in this house except me.
Terri, I suspect kids already know such words. If not the newspaper, there is school, and friends, you see ! We have NEVER once uttered the word "Gun" in our household, but soon-to-be-4 V shocked me today by making a "gun" out of her handkerchief. Took me a long time to recover.
oops, I should've clarified. Yes, Sports is big, the son chews up every word. Style is mainly for the comics :) Wash Post has a nice lineup.
I dunno... maybe it's better he hears it from you and the newspaper than his friends? coz i hated learning about it from my friend - entirely too sensational and disturbing. and i was nine i believe :)
-- Amrita aka Debbie Downer
lakshmi, sounds like she blew your mind away.
rads, son has started taking the sports section into the bathroom like daddy. Any solutions?
amrita, I was also 9 when I first saw it in the newspaper. I pronounced it as "rapi" and asked my folks what it meant. The dictionary didn't help either. I'm not sure how/when I learned the meaning (probably from a 1980 hindi movie scene), but it's a word that still gives me the chills.
I know how you feel - I feel the same way...but they will learn from someone else - better this way almost...
Terri - unfortunately, we don't live in India, where we could threaten to shut water off from the outside with a valve[which really works btw!].
Look at the bright side, he's learning the art of multi-tasking? :)
I know someone who refuses to buy the cosmopolitan because it teaches you 69 ways to blow his mind and she doesnt like the idea of the words 'blow' or 69' being read by her kids!i so hear you.
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