A Child’s Concerns About Looming War

Each day we walk my daughter to school. After dropping her off, my 5-year-old son and I walk home together, since his kindergarten class starts at 11:20 a.m. This is when he starts to ask me questions about the upcoming war. Apparently the 5-year-olds are talking about it to each other on the kindergarten playground. He is worried: “Mommy, will they come down this street? Can we get a book on war so we can know what they will do? Will they stay outside our apartment building, or will they come into our apartment? I’m scared!”

By this time he is crying, beside himself; nothing I can say can console him. My heart breaks at his pain and I cry with him. We go upstairs and we look at the atlas. I show him how hard it would be to attack our country, how far away Iraq is. I don’t tell him about anthrax, smallpox, falling planes, dirty bombs, contaminated water. I just stick to the old form of war, hand-to-hand combat. He feels better and jumps off my lap to play Legos. But I wonder what the Iraqi people are telling their children, so I close my door and cry some more.

Mylene Carberry

Los Angeles