How would you tell a 7yo about the climate crisis without making her feel guilty, terrified or overwhelmed? Next issue of our magazine for kids will be about Earth & environment, and brainstorming on this made our grown-up editors feel helpless and defeated.
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The guilt thing is pretty simple in my own head. Guilt is for when I did something wrong, which the kids didn’t. Their personal contribution is both very marginal and mostly their parents’ responsibility. Responsibility OTOH is about what needs to be done and who can help.
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Maybe it's just me, but there are way more things that need to be done than any single person is physically capable of doing, and it's hard to talk about them without implying that this is what you _should_ do. Knowing I should do something + not doing it = guilt & anxiety.
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I don’t have great ideas about what to do in writing. In real-time, I think it’s good to follow the kid’s attention and interests. Answer what they ask, but without adding a bunch more, so they can digest at their own pace. Default to empathy and reflection if they get upset.
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I also think it’s important to be upfront about my uncertainty where it genuinely exists and be up for helping the kid research more or doing it together. Wrt climate change I am quite uncertain about what a good plan would look like.
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