Don't Teach Just Fear and Safety, Teach Fun Too

Fear.  Natural disasters, terrorist attacks, bird flu, sexual predators, a jittery economy, injuries, bad grades, bad choices.  These are all fears that we have for our children.  And they are real and possibly devastating.  But are we over reacting?  Are we teaching our children (and ourselves) to be afraid of everything?  Are we building a culture of fear, in which we scuttle about in our own little bubble world and constantly have anxiety about the world around us?  Possibly.

First, the dangers from all of the fears listed above, and most others, is vastly overstated.  Part of the reason is that every corner of the globe can now be instantly covered on the news, 24 hours a day.  This is a good thing, information in and of itself never hurt anyone.  It is what we do with and how we respond to that information that is important.  How we digest what we see and read and how we deal with that information with regards to our children is the key.

Natural disasters happen, and may happen more as damage to the environment is reflected in weather changes.  At this time in human development, there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them.  What we can do is to prepare our families in a way that gives them the best chance of survival in the face of disasters.  Not to huddle in fear, or call them "Gods Wrath,"  but to take responsibility to live through them, as the vast majority of people in a disaster event do.  

The same applies to fears about terrorists.  The so-called "War on Terror"  is far from being over.  If we are to continue to have policies that place large military forces in the Middle East, than we can expect more terrorists to take up arms against us.  So what do we do?  We don't become complacent, but we don't live in fear either.  There is very little likelihood that the average American will be a victim of terrorism.  So we should go about our lives, and not overly stress our children.