Parenting in a Fallen World

With each and every school shooting, mass shooting or terrorist attack, I remind myself that we cannot let pure evil dictate our feelings of safety, that we cannot let the unbelievably tragic events keep us from living our every day lives. ...but with each and every event, my feelings of safety for my children DOES diminish, whether I like it or not. That's real talk - not sugar-coated and most definitely, not me pretending that these events can't happen here. 

That being said, our lunch conversation today focused on making sure Eli and Everly knew how to react in the case of an active shooter at school or elsewhere...even though, sadly, I know deep down that such preparations may or may not actually impact whether or not they would be able to survive such an incident given the nature in which they've occurred. But NOT preparing them would most certainly fail them. Finding the words to explain why such an evil act has and could happen was difficult enough, but then explaining it to a first grader without terrifying her was even harder. 

We should never have to look into our children's eyes and see absolute fear...and in Evie's case, tears of a reality she should never have to know exists at her age. ...but the reality is here and not preparing them for the possibility is, for me, not an option. 

Active shooter response has joined the ranks of stranger danger, drug free awareness and fire safety...and it's absolutely sickening.