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The events that transpired yesterday at the US Capitol won’t long be forgotten. Many Americans watched the horror unfold in real time, as armed rioters and insurrectionists broke through barricades and stormed the halls of the storied building, looting, breaking windows, attacking law enforcement, and posing for pictures in the offices of elected officials. The emotions are still raw for all of us, one question lingers, “Why?” .
It’s a reasonable question, and one that came from the lips of Fatherly’s Parenting Editor Patrick Coleman’s 7-year-old. While working from home with his wife and two young boys patrick faced a choice: “I could close my door and shelter them from chaos, or I could turn on the television and live the moment with them.”
He brought them in and that’s when the questions started to flood. What’s happening? What are these people doing? Are we safe? Why are the reporters saying that?
How did he answer them? Calmly, rationally, truthfully, acknowledging what he doesn’t know and where his biases lay. The hardest part of the conversation, one that parents are having across the nation, is deciding to have it. But that’s the role of parents. We are here to let our kids know that they are safe, and teach them that there are hard truths to stare down. In the doing, we can stare down some hard truths ourselves — and grow alongside our kids.
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