How to talk to your kids about the Barrhaven mass killings and other distressing news
CTV
When devastating or tragic news breaks, like the mass killing of a mother, four young children, and their family friend in Ottawa, many parents of young children might have questions about how best to explain what happened.
When devastating or tragic news breaks, like the mass killing of a mother, four young children, and their family friend in Ottawa, many parents of young children might have questions about how best to explain what happened.
Dr. Gail Beck, the interim Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Chief of Staff at The Royal, specializes in youth mental health and offered some advice when speaking to Newstalk 580 CFRA and CTV News Ottawa on Thursday.
"Studies have shown that not talking to children about events like this does more harm than good," she said. "Your children will have lots of questions about this."
Beck says one of the most important things to remember is honesty.
"Talk to your kids and speak about your own feelings, your own fear of what it means, your own distress at the idea of this happening so close to home, and use language that they'll understand," she explained. "At any point in time, the best advice to any parent or grandparent or aunts and uncles is to be honest. Be honest about your own feelings. Use simple language. Hold people close; give them the comfort that they need. Reassure them that any feeling that they have, whether they're sad, angry, or worried, is absolutely normal. It's a very difficult thing to go through."
One of the hardest questions to answer is "why?" Beck says.
"It is hard and some of these children will be at that age where they ask 'why?' all the time," Beck said. "At the same time, all of those children who've asked why so often are aware that this is another one of those questions to which there isn't an answer. All we can do in those circumstances is take care of each other and love each other."
