Friday, September 11, 2009

9-11 Through the Eyes of My 6 Year Old

On the way home from school, my 1st grader asked me if I wanted to know what she learned at school today. The teacher sends home a synopsis of the weekly tasks that the class will be working to achieve so I am always interested in hearing the explanations of the lessons in her own words so I told her that I most definitely wanted to hear what she learned so she began to explain that today is a special day.

"One time on this day, nine - ten" ,she began.

"Do you mean nine - eleven?" I asked.

"Yes, I mean nine - eleven. One time on this day some people that live in another country did bad things. They drove air planes into big tall buildings. Do you know why they did this, Mommy???"

By this time my curiosity was peaked, so I was anxious to hear her answer. "Why would people do such a horrible thing, sissy?" I asked her.

"Because we have things free here and they don't have free things there. They want to have the free things that we have."

I paused for a minute and then realized that my 6 year old daughter was learning what so many adults in this country take for granted. I elaborated on what she was saying by explaining to her that she was some what right, but that she was talking about freedom and asked her if she knew what freedom meant. We had a bit of a discussion about how men and women in the military help to give us our freedom. That means that we can vote on who we want to be the president, we can read and write what we want. We can also watch what we want on television and listen to whatever we choose on the radio. There are people in other countries that are told what they can watch or not watch and they have no say so in their government. That is why they don't like us. We have what they don't and they don't like that.

"That's not nice to be mad at someone else when they have something you want is it, Mommy? We should all share what we have." Shelby said.

This 6 year old has the world figured out...if only we could all be as smart at this 1st grader. If we could just all share what we have and the world would be a better place.

In a perfect world, a 32 year old mother of three would not be explaining to her 6 year old daughter that before she was born, the worst terrorist attack to take place on US soil occurred. In a perfect world, this mother would not have to further explain the meaning of the word terrorist. It hurts my heart to think that in their lifetime something like this could possibly happen again. No matter how much we protect our children in our homes, these walls only go so far and we can only do so much to protect them. My prayer on this day, a day of remembrance is that the US (or any other country for that matter) never sees another 9-11, EVER. I also extend my prayers and condolences to the families who lost members on this tragic day. Their lives were forever changed that day, just as ours were. We all hugged our loved ones a little bit tighter that night and the weeks following. Let us remember the love we showed for one another in the days and weeks following that event. Let us pay our respects to the fallen heroes of 9-11, the fire fighters, police officers, emergency response workers, as well as the men and women of our armed forces who have sacrificed their lives for another. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. The events of 9-11 will never be forgotten, the good and the bad.

6 comments, add yours here:

Anonymous said...

hi
i love the fact that such young children are being taught about such important (yet tragic) events in schools and at home....your daughter sounds like a beautiful, compassionate little lady :)
we arent american but i remember what i was doing the day i heard the tragic news on our tv...my whole day stopped, my heart ached for every person involved plus you guys as a country.
i decided to talk to my youngest children about 9/11, my 5 yr old also had it mentioned in his school and they done a minute silence in rememberance. this has fascinated him since so we trawled thro internet sites so i could show him the evil damage and let him talk thro it till it made sense to him.
kids are our future and no matter how patriotic we are there is always room for compassion towards another country...and today i know the uk felt much of it for you guys.
hope you dont mind me sharing all this with you.
debs

Travis Cody said...

I will always remember the events of that day.

John Holland said...

It's strange to think of the children growing up now that are only learning of this terrible even as history. A very moving post, if we all could learn as your daughter.

Amazing Gracie said...

These are the ways our children grow and become compassionate for others. You are doing what the best moms do and all of your children will be the better for your remarkable insights. We need more young mothers like you...
~~~Blessings~~~

Anonymous said...

It breaks my heart that our children must be taught about terrorism. Yet, somewhere across the globe, another mother is offering her child up as a human bomb.

Twisted Cinderella said...

Such a great conversation with Shelby.