"This could be our last day on earth."

[GoddessOfGuinness]

That's what my 7 year old told me today. He's also been drawing a lot of pictures of himself with halo and wings lately.

I pointed out that while it's certainly true that today could be the last day on earth; yesterday could have been as well. Or tomorrow. Or sometime next month. So it's important to enjoy life while you've got it.


I hope he doesn't fret about this too long...

[CanuckAmok]

1. What if he's on to something?

Seriously... ah, damn... I've wasted my life.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Wasted?

Is getting wasted a waste?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

2. I agree with him.

Only because I've been in touch with the Mothership, ahd they'll be landing shortly to take me home to the stars.

[bloom]

3. Is there a particular news item that triggered this?

Any ideas?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. He was aware of the London bombings...

He's been writing little newspapers and delivering them to me, with headlines like "Pluto Destroyed", "London Attacks", and "Nightmare Happens".

[AlienGirl]

16. That probably accounts for it

When kids encounter emotionally traumatic things (and that includes news stories--and it's a normal part of growing up to encounter such things and work through them) they process the intense emotions through play. For a couple of months after 9/11, my kids played by endlessly building towers out of blocks, then knocking them down, and repeating. I'm sure kids all over the world had a period of similar post-traumatic play during that time.

Tucker

[bloom]

18. Sometimes things like that

might affect someone more than you know.

Sometimes I wonder if watching the Vietnam War news at a certain age - like about 7 - was part of what made me more liberal than my siblings. I am far more anti-war than they are.

My daughter was 6-7 when the Iraq War 1 was on. Hmmmm.

It does sound like it really bothered him.

[mzteris]

4. ummmm......

not to get too personal - but where do you think this is coming from? Some overzealous Sunday School teacher or neighbor or something?

I mean, if you guys aren't "religious" - and even if you are - you certainly don't want your 7 yo stressing out about the end of the world and dying........ I'd start asking him questions about why he's feeling this way. Find out WHERE it's coming from. And then have a little "chat" with whoever it is putting such ideas in his head. He's too young for to have that hanging over him.....

Sorry if I'm overstepping here.......

[Kraklen]

6. Sounds perfectly normal to me.

I remember contemplating the mortality of humanity when I was that age. Of course when I was that age I saw an alien rip out of a guy's chest on cable, so maybe I'm a bad example.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. I was pretty intently into meaning of life and death issues

when I was at that age, too...but god, I was a weird li'l thing!

[mzteris]

12. see my response to Kraken

...... I'd just be asking, that's all. There are some freaking weirdos out there who say strange things to kids. ALthough I do live in the "Bible Belt" so we have to be on our toes and watch out for those subversive fundies around here..... lol.

[mzteris]

11. If

he wasn't drawing the "halo & wings" thing, I could buy just being a precocious 7 yo.........

I have precocious kids so I know it's not beyond the realm of possibility that he "just thought of it" - BUT... usually most 7yos are just parroting what they've been told...... And the whole church angle raises a red flag for me.

[Kraklen]

15. You don't think 7 year olds think about death and dying?

Seriously?

[mzteris]

20. not the average ones

unless they're in an environment that's planted the thought.....

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Not at all...

It's a good idea to talk with him about it. Sometimes he'll mention that he had a bad dream, but can't remember what happened in it.

I hope my "born again" sister hasn't been filling his head with a bunch of crap...

[mzteris]

14. Ah......

***I hope my "born again" sister hasn't been filling his head with a bunch of crap...***

That's what *I'm* talking about....... (somehow it loses something not actually saying it.... :) )

[GoddessOfGuinness]

22. She doesn't see him that often...

though he did visit her one day last week. I don't want him to feel as if he's done anything wrong, so I'll need to be careful how I approach the subject with him...He's a very sensitive kid.

[mzteris]

27. just ask him

to tell you about his picture. (What I always have to do with my kids 'cause I can never figure out what it is they've actually drawn! ROFL)

and gently go from there. (Why am I telling you? I'm sure you know - you sound like a good mom.)

The proximity between visit with fundie aunt and picture of wings/halo seems to be the clue.

[FuzzySlippers]

5. Sounds good to me.

[dbonds]

13. You don't live in NC do you?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. Nope...

We're just outside of Washington DC.

[rockymountaindem]

17. Time to interject a deep thought

just because I'm in the mood from doing battle in a GD thread.

Once, a great Rabbi told his students, "the only time you need to repent is the day before you die". The students replied "but Rabbi, death could come at any time! How will we know when to repent?"

"Ahhh..." said the Rabbi, "that is why you must repent every day".

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. LOL

He's very self-conscious lately about his negative moments (most of which occur due to being hungry or tired). He's pretty repentant already for a 7 year old. :-)

[RagAss]

19. My very first memory in life

at the age of four was the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald on television. I often wonder if that violent image and the images of the JFK funeral in the days that followed, turned me into the cynical bastard that I am today.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

25. Since you remember it so well

it must have had quite an impact on you. Maybe you use cynicism as a defense mech?

[RagAss]

29. I'm sure I do...

The first images are in many cases the ones that are burned in the deepest.

[Withywindle]

21. I was about that age when Jonestown happened...

...and I was obsessed with it. There's nothing in my family or school that would seem to predispose me to being kinda morbid and fascinated with death as a little kid, but I definitely was. Some kids just are, it's a matter of personality, and the news can certainly fuel it.

Couple years after that I learned what nuclear war was. Hoo boy.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. That's something I'm very concerned about...

Remember when kids were freaked out by the prospect of a nuclear war? My older stepson used to draw pictures of his post-nuclear holocaust imaginings. And this was going on all over the country.

With Dipshit handling China and North Korea the way he has, it's only a matter of time before kids are freaked out again.

[MountainLaurel]

28. Same Here

More than Jonestown, although I remember seeing photos in magazines, a couple other events got me focused on morbid topics. One was my granddad's death when I was five: According to my mom, I would wake up yelling that he was sitting on the foot of my bed. The others included Three Mile Island (we were about 4 hours away, and I recall my gram looking at the river down from our house talking about how the radiation would come through the ground and kill us all) and the Iranian uprising and hostage crisis (in the second grade, I was convinced by a friend that there were Iranians living in the hills surrounding our school).

Anyone else remember the programs HBO used to have with Dick Cavett hosting, on topics like Richard Speck and the Zodiac killer. I also watched a lot of those.

Apparently, I was quite a nutbag.

Of course, I'm a Scorpio, so we tend to be waaay interested in those things as it is. :evilgrin: