I learned sometime ago that things we adults treat lightly because we're already de-sensitized and jaded with experience, can affect kids so differently and with so much more intensity.
This was when my niece was 5 years old and I was explaining to her the story of the cheerful song 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. I finished the part about the boy growing up and forgetting about the dragon and how the dragon became forlorn and its scales soon fell one by one. I was going on and on until I noticed her head was bent and she was hiding her face from me. I soon saw that tears had been steadily running down her cheeks! To this day (she's fourteen now) that song makes her so sad and she refuses to listen to it. Basically I ruined that song for her for good.
I learned not to underestimate the emotional impact of events on children.
This was when my niece was 5 years old and I was explaining to her the story of the cheerful song 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. I finished the part about the boy growing up and forgetting about the dragon and how the dragon became forlorn and its scales soon fell one by one. I was going on and on until I noticed her head was bent and she was hiding her face from me. I soon saw that tears had been steadily running down her cheeks! To this day (she's fourteen now) that song makes her so sad and she refuses to listen to it. Basically I ruined that song for her for good.
I learned not to underestimate the emotional impact of events on children.