This I don't mind but she was getting a little agitated talking about it this morning. Apparently the teacher had been telling them about the devil yesterday in school and how the bad go to hell, etc. I don't want my daughter wrapped in cotton wool but as someone who in my current situation knows only too well how fear can affect the mind I am a little worried about too much exposure to fear. Is the devil something a 5 year old needs to be taught about? The reason I ask this is that night terrors have been no stranger in the past.
Maybe on top of my worries is the conflict I feel talking about these things. The devil concept being something I scoff at makes it hard for me to play along- but I do so for my wife's sake and not to confuse the child. As soon as she is of age though I can't help feeling that I will be sitting down reading Darwin's theory of evolution to her. Not as a brainwash against what she has learned but as a balance of viewpoints to reach her own conclusion.
As a parent I am unsure about how much exposure my children should be allowed and from my current viewpoint I worry that maybe I am being overprotective. In fact I get myself too riled sometimes. My feeling is that kids today have too much weight on their shoulders at a young age and are bombarded with too much. I was reading today that a new anti-smoking advert is being removed from kids TV slots which although giving the right message, smoking is bad, is playing on kids acknowledging that their parents may die if they smoke. The most disturbing one for me again has good intentions. The advert for recognising strokes does so much good but again it appears during the day and frightens the life out of both my daughters. That is not something they need to see. But there are lots of examples. I gave my daughter crisps for lunch one day and she refused them citing that the teachers said they were bad. They have to watch what they eat, what they drink, exercise, read the right books and the list goes on. Can't we just leave kids to be kids?
I have to watch what I say though. If I do not nod my head and conform with society then I may become the very devil she is enquiring about.
