Well, I knew it was just a matter of time before the sweet innocence of childhood would begin to come under attack from reality. The past week has marked our first milestone of "real life" talks. It started earlier this week when Lily came home and expressed her fear of going into "5th grade because she heard they talk about sex." So calmly I asked her if she knew what sex was? She said, no, but I know "sexy". And so later that evening we had our first "sex" talk. I kept it simple. I talked about sex in regards to gender and also we talked about how sex is when two people who are married and love each other touch each other in a special way to express that love. After that, she was ready to move on and change subjects!
Then on the eve of Sept 11th (yesterday), it occurred to me that she has no idea what happened on Sept 11th or why it is called Patriots Day. I figured they might talk about it in school tomorrow and I didn't want her to hear about it from someone else first, so I decided last night I should give her a simple primer on Sept 11th. Again I kept it simple. I told her that some very evil people had taken an airplane and crashed it into a tall building. She asked who died. I explained that all kinds of people died, including police officers, firefighters, parents, and their children. She remarked how sad that was. And just like that she was ready to move on and change subjects.
