September 11, 2001

The boys came home yesterday discussing the happenings of September 11, 2001. While I VIVIDLY remember this day, remember being paralyzed at work watching this happen on tv, with a child at daycare and 7 months pregnant with another, and a husband that was on an airplane headed for South Dakota (me having NO idea where his layovers were, what plane he was on and at that point they were not saying which planes were hijacked, and being VERY new to the traveling husband game at this point). BELIEVE ME - I REMEMBER!!! I was very careful NOT to let Caleb watch the tv and they have not really watched anything since. It is replayed over and over this time of year.

Caleb came home and said that his teacher said that she did not want to hear anyone talking about WHAT happened to the Twin Towers. That if the students had questions, to ask their parents. She wanted the parents to choose what the students learn about it. They discussed it some, Caleb knew that two planes hit the Twin Towers, that one plane hit the Pentegon and that one plane was headed to the White House, but "crashed in a meadow." He knew that it was "stupid, bad guys from Iraq" that did this.

Isaac comes home and says "On September 11, 2001, two airplanes flew into the Twin Towers and they collapsed and killed lots of people." It sounded like a well-rehearsed speech.

I am SO mixed on this. On whether or not a first grade teacher should be telling her students about this. I DO appreciate the way Caleb's teacher handled it, leaving it up to the parents. BUT, whether we want to accept the fact or not, it is history. It will be (if not already) in History books. The kids WILL be taught about it. I DOUBT they will be taught in first grade, doesn't even sound like in fourth grade, but it wil be taught.

I took the oppurtunity to discuss what happened with Caleb and Isaac last night. Bryce obviously had not heard about it, so I did not want to bring it up to him. Caleb said he had heard about the Twin Towers, but thought they were fake. I explained that the Twin Towers are used in lots of stories and movies that ARE NOT real, but that the towers themselves WERE real. I explained about the men that hi-jacked the planes, about the heroes that took over the hijackers and kept them from being able to wreck into the White House, by crashing into the "meadow."

Isaac just listened. I don't know exactly how much he got from it. It was obviously past time for it to be explained to Caleb. He knows there is a war going on. He actually just earlier this week asked what a suicide bomber was. I was able to use that when explaining the hijackers. Now that he knows about the Twin Towers, he knows WHY we are at war. He appreciates the fact that there are men and women fighting to save our country and keep people like the suicide bombers and hijackers from hurting more people.

My babies are growing up too fast. I know I am just wanting to protect them forever, that is why I don't want them seeing things like that, but realistically this is the world they are growing up, and I guess they need to understand and learn how to live in this world and cope with things like this.

Sometimes being a parent SUCKS!!!