I Told My Toddler About a Mass Shooting. Here’s Why.

Author’s note: I originally wrote this in June 2016 following the mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida that left 49 dead. This piece originally appeared on Babble.com, which is no longer in publication. I’m reposting it here because sadly, six years later, it’s still relevant.

“Can we listen to the news?” my three-year-old son asked.

After picking up my son up from daycare, I had just buckled him into his car seat. “Sure, honey,” I replied.

Our local public radio station — like so many media outlets right now — recapped the horrible massacre that happened in Orlando on Sunday.

“Mom, what are they talking about?”

I glanced up and looked at my son in my rearview mirror: I could see the gears turning in his inquisitive little toddler brain.

“Mommy, what are they talking about on the news?” he repeated.

I always knew that some day I’d have to have this conversation with my son; I just hadn’t expected it so soon, at such a young age. My mind raced to try and think about how to respond in a way that would make sense to a toddler.

“Over the weekend, something very sad happened where a lot of people got very hurt,” I replied as gently as I could. I knew it wouldn’t be his only question: My son is a talker, always probing for more.

“Was there bad guys?” he asked me.

“There was a very bad man who hurt a lot of people and himself,” I replied.

“Did the people fight the bad guy?” Such an innocent question from my son, as he sat there, sipping a juice box in the back seat. “They tried to,” I began. “But a lot of people had to run away and a lot of people got very hurt.”

“Did they have light sabers?” My son, always the helper, always looking for a solution.

“No, sweetie,” I said softly.

“Did they have blasters?” That’s what we called his squirt guns — blasters — because my husband and I are cognizant of how and what we want to teach our son about gun culture and violence in our country.

“No, honey. They didn’t have blasters.”