NU #032 – 12 Compelling Reasons to Protect Kids From “Adult” Conversations.

I have already shared this blog post to social media sites, but I wanted to link it to my blog as well. I was really happy to see that someone wrote such a thoughtful list of considerations and strategies for parents. I might not have come across it if I hadn’t checked out Doug Peterson’s weekly feature of Ontario educators’ blog posts.

I would have been most grateful for this writing on the topic when my children were younger and in school. As a parent, I believe I made a consistent effort to consider a number of areas that the author of the post touched on, for example: Protecting emotional well-being, maintaining a sense of innocence, family values and beliefs, information overload, and teaching privacy and boundaries.

The insights shared in the post would have helped me out with many conversations with other parents, family members, and teachers as I set about establishing boundaries for family discussions with my children present. The blog post is offered for parental guidance, but I think a number of the considerations would also be useful for school staff for the discussions that spill into school settings about harsh or controversial community and world events. These two considerations in the post resonated for me in that regard as well:

Maintaining a Sense of Innocence: Childhood is a time of innocence, and parents often want to preserve this innocence as long as possible. Discussions on certain topics, such as some of the harsh realities of the world, can erode this innocence prematurely. This could lead to raising skeptic or cynical kids later on.

Information Overload: In today’s digital age, there’s an abundance of information available 24/7, and not all of it is suitable for children. Limiting helps prevent information overload about a certain topic and ensures that kids are receiving “just enough” information to satisfy their questions & curiosity.

I agree with Doug’s take, “This post is a keeper”.