Saturday, July 22, 2017

How to Talk to Children About Donald Trump

As someone who has worked for decades to embrace, heal, and transform my own personal and generational painful legacy for myself and my children, and as someone who worked for 30 years with children and families, I find this to be a vital article and book for our children - and for ourselves as adults. That said, I believe that we can go even a step farther and truly discern who we hold up as role models for our children and all children. It is important to know the deeper truth about someone before we choose to hold them up as role models. (Certainly Bill or Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama, have in reality endorsed hugely harmful policies, which would preclude them from being authentic positive role models.) May we all choose carefully who we emulate and who most inspires us. This makes all the difference in how it is that we walk in the world and what we model for our children and all children.- Molly

The US president's behavior is often at odds with the values we are trying to instill in our children. So how do we explain Trump to our kids?

In her new book, How Do I Explain This to My Kids: Parenting in the Age of Trump, child psychologist Dr. Ava Siegler brings together stories by authors and writers, including novelist Mira Jacob, Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, scholar Robin D.G. Kelley and New York Times blogger Nicole Chung, about the conversations they are having with their children in the current political climate. In this Q&A, Karin Kamp gets advice on how to thoughtfully explain Donald Trump’s words, behavior and policy ideas to young people, as well as how to raise them to be engaged citizens.
Karin Kamp: Why did you decide to write this book after Trump’s election?
Ava Siegler: I had written a previous book, titled What Should I Tell the Kids: A Parent’s Guide to Real Problems in the Real World and when Trump was elected to the presidency, I thought: What problem could be more real than the ascendency of Donald Trump to this office?

No comments: