I feel like this has been a tough week. The destruction in Japan and now the nuclear threat has hit me hard. And, maybe surprisingly, the murder and attack at the Lululemon in Bethesda is really haunting me. I stayed up way too late last night watching CNN on the nuclear threat and had bad dreams. Unfortunately, my teenage daughter stayed up with me. She said she did not have dreams when we talked this am (I brought it up) but I am not sure I should have kept the TV on. Even teens feel insecure and vulnerable about world events and neighborhood traumas.

..and now I just saw the news about the construction worker being hurt seriously...

"gerogetownmoms.com" just posted a good article about talking to your children of different ages about tragedies.

Although my daughter is too young to understand all this devastation, it is hard to deal with even as an adult. She senses how upset I am and it upsets her. What do parents say to the pre-school aged child? I can't imagine explaining all this.

Kids are amazing.....They sense everything you feel. I remember my daughter was starting first grade when Sept 11th happened....I had to watch tv ONLY when she was not around...and then try to keep up routine and a sense of stability.

We try and take the let the child lead approach when talking about disasters like this - as in let them ask the questions and not go in more detail than they are looking for. Then we answer the questions in as much of a factual way as possible, without using superlatives, never saying something like that would never happen here, etc.

I think its also important to focus on the good stories that come out of a disaster like this. For example, look at how the neighbors are helping each other, or here is something we can do to help. It shows them that we as a human race are incredibly resilient despite the horrible things that can happen.

I like those ideas. Being honest but upbeat is good and limit the tv or media images...they are a lot to handle at any age