PARIS -- “Mummy, are we at war?”
Many parents in France faced this difficult question from their children after Wednesday's attack on Paris-based satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. And there were even more difficult questions after Friday’s siege at a kosher supermarket in eastern Paris.
Some parents with young children said they avoided answering the questions altogether. Meanwhile, other didn’t have a choice -- like the woman whose children were locked in their synagogue all morning after a false alarm in the 19th arrondissement or Nadia Brahim who had to pick up her nephew from school because his nanny had been in a state of shock following Wednesday's attack.
So many kids in the #Paris march with their own messages. "Pour Charlie," reads one. Raw emotions, mammoth crowds pic.twitter.com/TFj6mfv8YL— Vivienne Walt (@vivwalt) January 11, 2015
But as Brahim said, “The most difficult thing to explain is how drawing -- which my nephew likes to do so much -- could lead to death.”
Schools held moments of silence across France on Thursday, as teachers tried to explain the events of the day before. One school posted “I am Charlie” drawings by older children on its gates. However, one pupil’s parent said he would have preferred that his 4-year-old hadn’t seen them.
“At best, he doesn't take it too seriously, and comes away psychologically unscathed. At worst, he understands that … it is possible to just walk out of your home, and get shot in the head. How on earth is he supposed to cope with that?" he said.
On the other end of the spectrum, another parent told her child everything, and posted this on Facebook: “The truth, as horrible as it may be, is always better than silence."
#CharlieHebdo Don't know who to credit for photo and sorry for pinching, but it's lovely. says "I'm a cartoonist too" pic.twitter.com/wjfX21buui— Kim Willsher (@kimwillsher1) January 11, 2015
One thing most children under 7 now have in common is having learned this new word: “terrorism.”
A newspaper aimed at children, called Le Petit Quotidien tackled the complicated terms “Islamist, jihadist and democracy” head-on. “We can’t give them rose-tinted glasses to look at a reality that is dark” said the paper’s editor, François Dufour.
Le Petit Quotidien's headline on Friday read, “Why all of France feels under attack.” With the help of diagrams and cartoons, its journalists explained the values of the country, as well as the importance of the rule of law.
Kid at Paris rally: "When I grow up, I want to be a journalist. I'm not afraid" (via @BBCWorld) #JeSuisCharlie pic.twitter.com/q5fZGQNVTM— Trushar Barot (@Trushar) January 11, 2015
Some parents chose to describe the gunmen’s behavior as the actions of a few mad individuals. When Zoe, 8, asked her mother whether a religious war had started, she responded, “There hadn’t been a religious war since the crusades" -- a topic Zoe had recently been learning about at school.
Zoe's younger brother then interrupted, “They were mad! They were very, very mad!”
However, some parents did indeed frame what had happened as a war –- perhaps not between religions, but between values.
“When I spoke to my older children, I emphasized the importance of the principles of freedom,” one father, named William, said.
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