What did you tell your kids about Newtown?

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Thank you, Buyer Beware. You are right, I shouldn't expect my daughter to embrace difference at this age, when she is trying so hard to fit in and make friends. She also knows that her autism is responsible for a lot of cognitive deficits, so school is a big challenge even aside from the social stuff. I think I'll have a talk with her about how empathetic, sensitive and generous she is, to reinforce the fact that she is nothing like the perpetrator of such a hateful action.
I hope all your kids are doing well and looking forward to some relaxed family time.
J

We are still working with my boy on this. His dad is rather indiscriminate about how he watches the news in front of our son, and our son already knows about many evils that go on................

My son DID NOT pick up or understand that the shooter had an autism diagnosis (thank God).


We used this as a teaching moment to say that violence was bad and we were truthful with my son and told him that the shooter was angry at someone he knew who worked at the school.

My son mainly caught onto the emotion and not the entire situation.

This has been my focus with my son - my analogy is usually hair color. There is another one that I used to hear on talk radio...50% of people who die in car accidents have eaten french fries in the last month.... does that mean french fries cause car accidents?

That said in my conversations with adults about my concerns..... I address that the way people who are different are treated, especially in affluent suburbs, breeds rage and hostility. So...I think there is a connection, not to autism specifically, but to treating people really badly to the point where they break. That may not have been the case with this guy, but I think it has been the case in some of the other mass shootings.

We haven't discussed it at all. TV news is almost never on in our home so we're not caught up the sensationalism. The event was truly horrible, but for kids it's just bad stuff that happened someplace far away, not so different from a tragedy in Pakistan or Syria.

NYC schools drill responses to armed intruders. It seems like they did this in Newtown and it probably saved many lives. NYC has strict gun control laws and there is a cop at the entrance to every school. So I don't think this is something my kids should be worrying about. If they haven't mentioned fears about it then I'm not going to put the idea in their heads.

My daughter has AS. Initially she embraced the diagnosis because it felt so right. These days she has mixed feelings. She's come to understand herself. But she doesn't like any extra attention from teachers, guidance counselors etc that comes with the label.