If you have children, chances are you've been affected, heartbroken and stressed thinking about the tragedies that occured last week in Florida. Parental stress is normal but when school shootings happen, it’s just natural for all of us to mistrust “the system” and think of the safety of our precious children everyday when we drop them off.
When I’m stressed I cook. Yup, seems funny, but it makes me happy. I love feeding people! As a result, each of my 3 kids love to cook. Instead of watching the news and relishing in the sadness, I decided to spend some quality time with each of my kiddo’s. With my oldest, we made Vietnamese Spring Rolls. My middles, he loves Chinese, so we made Scallion Pancakes. The littlest loves brownies, so we tested out a new recipe of chocolate pudding with a graham cracker crust. Stay tuned as I will be happily be sharing our recipes with you!
This time spent with the kids gave me the quality moments to discuss the school shooting, talk about their individual schools, how they felt and hopefully put some ease of the stresses they were experiencing.
In case you missed it, Carlsbad Superintendent, Dr. Ben Churchill sent additional resources to help you navigate strategies on how to talk with your kids.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: “Talking to Kids about the Shooting”
The National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement at the University of Southern California: “Talking to Kids about Tragedies (Such as Shootings and Terror Attacks) in the News”
The American Psychological Association: “Talking to Kids about School Shootings”