I read this poem by Maggie Smith, a great English actress, about not telling children the truth about the ugliness of this world.
She shares the idea that you have to hide this truth from your children.
Here is the poem:
Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate, though I keep this from my children. For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird. For every loved child, a child broken, bagged, sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world is at least half terrible, and for every kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though I keep this from my children. I am trying to sell them the world. Any decent realtor, walking you through a real shithole, chirps on about good bones: This place could be beautiful, right? You could make this place beautiful.
To hide the truth about the reality of the ugliness of the world is only good for a very short time. You don't want their perfect little world to be spoiled until it has to be.
But you cannot do it forever. At some point, they have to know the truth about the ugliness of the world they are being prepared to live in.
I know a family who hasn't told their children about the ugliness in this world or the ugliness in people. These children grew up vulnerable to the predators out there. They were naive and not able to listen to their gut instincts.
Kids are afraid of the monsters on TV and in their storybooks. I think it's necessary to tell them that the only monsters that really exist are bad people. And to teach them how to try to identify them and what to do.
What kind of protection do they have?
What do you think?