First Lady Urges Adults to Reassure Kids

First Lady Laura Bush made a surprise appearance Tuesday on the syndicated “Oprah Show,” describing how last week’s terrorist attacks affected her family’s life, and encouraging teachers and parents to deal with the pain and confusion experienced by their children.

In a program that was marked by emotion and tears from audience members, Bush spoke candidly with daytime host Oprah Winfrey about life in the White House in the week since the attack. When asked by Winfrey how President Bush was doing and if he was sleeping, the first lady nodded and said he was doing “very well.”

Said Bush: “We’re both sleeping. He is very focused. He has a lot of resolve. He’s so proud of America. . . . We’ve never been so unified, and it’s really strengthened him, and me. And we see how people are handling it all over our country. And to go to the memorial services, the things that we’ve done, to meet the families who have lost loved ones, or whose loved ones are injured, what they are saying is: ‘I’m praying for you, and I’m praying for our country.’ ”

She added that she and the president don’t talk much about the crisis when he comes home: “That’s all he’s talked about all day. That’s all that I know he’s thinking about every minute when he gets home. This will probably sound funny, but we have three pets we’re crazy about, and since our children aren’t there to be with us and to entertain us, we let our three pets entertain us.”

Bush told parents and teachers that they need to set aside time during the next several days “to console our children.”

She also said parents need to be particularly understanding toward teachers.

“I think teachers are in a really very, very hard position, and we all need to be sympathetic with our children’s teachers,” said Bush, a former teacher. “They are suffering exactly the same emotions we are, the same sadness, the same emotions, the same feelings of insecurity, and they’re taking care of our children. . . . So I think whatever we can do as parents to help our child’s teachers would be great.”

One audience member told Winfrey and Bush how disappointed she was that her 8-year-old daughter’s teacher chose not to discuss the attacks with students, saying it was not his responsibility.

“He was probably having a lot of trouble dealing with it himself,” Bush said.

As the show ended, Winfrey said: “Please let the president know that we are praying for him.”