MANY YEARS AGO, I mused over a parental decision that a friend of a friend had made to shield their child from everything reported on the news.

They went to great lengths to ensure their young charge would not be exposed in any way to the daily atrocities of man, reasoning their child was exactly that – a child with the right to live as one.

Adults built the fire; let them put it out. Why subject the smallies to it?

I struggled a bit with it all because, although I greatly admired this person’s approach, I did wonder if, in the long run, they were perhaps being a little too protective and just delaying the inevitable. Life is tough, better to teach them resilience.

Like when their child hears something unsavoury at the playground or at school. Rather than bubble wrapping our youngsters, surely it’s better to prepare them, even a little bit, for life’s many curveballs. By doing that, it automatically follows that they will have a few coping skills in their arsenal.

At present, we appear to have found ourselves inhabiting a dystopian-like world where, it seems, mad men are behind the wheel. If we, the parents in the room, find it difficult to wrap our own heads around the never-ending conflict, how do we explain it to our kids?

Further still, how do we raise them to navigate a world that is on fire? These questions have given me sleepless nights.

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Years back, cycling to school, my childhood friend pointed to the large house that was close to where we........

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