When I came back from work and picked up my kids, they told me that they had a lockdown drill. They didn't know it was a drill and thought they were going to die. My 2nd grader was in a room with some kindergarten kids and told me about how some of them just sat still in the dark and cried to themselves. My 3rd grade daughter said she asked the counselor if this was fake but was told to be quiet. She thought she was going to die that day. My son thought he was going to die that day. Their friends thought they were going to die.All of them sat huddled in their dark rooms, anticipating the last moments of their lives. To them, they were just told that they were going to die. My daughter quietly cried to herself as she hugged her friend and they stayed as silent as they could. Every noise made convinced my daughter that they were just heard by the shooter and that the shooter now knows where they were.When we have terrorists captured in military bases, we are not legally allowed to pretend that their life is about to be taken away. We are not allowed to pretend that they will be executed. Because that's inhumane. Yet here we are... Letting our kids huddle in the dark, told that someone wants to kill them, convinced that they are living their last moments.Later that night, my daughter was reading a book when something was fell on the ground and made a thud. she flinched and covered her ears, looking around to see if she can spot any danger. I took a day off of work and my kids stayed home from school the next day. They are now afraid to go to school because they now believe that someone wants to go to their school and kill them. I don't know what was communicated to them, but their impression is that some murderer will one day walk into the campus and take their lives.They do not really understand that this has a very remote chance of happening. They do not understand that this probably will not ever happen to them. All they understand is that their lives are now on the line when they attend school. I'm ashamed to admit that I kinda brushed it off at first when I heard them mention the drill, but after listening to them for a couple of minutes, I came to the understanding that, in their eyes, they came face to face with death today. They came face to face with their mortality.I have no idea how to even begin talking to them about this. They're in 2nd and 3rd grade. It seems like I either lie to them and say that this has zero chance of this happening to them, or I tell them that there is a chance, however small, that someone may walk into their campus and attempt to take their lives. I don't want to lie to them, but they can't really comprehend the concept of the probability being just about zero. I've emailed the principal and hopefully they'll send some sort of materials home with the kids so that we can discuss what happened. via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2XwYWXp
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