Parental Filter

I think you are right. Parents oaften worry about these things more than their children do.

This is a question that isn't much different from "why is the sky blue".


There are many different types of families. Telling the child this is as honest as anyone can be and should probably be the only thing said, unless there are other questions associated with this opening salvo.

We became a family with only one parent when my husband died. My son was 8 at the time, he had many friends with single parents, so the single parent family thing was not an issue, but some of his friends really couldn't understand why he couldn't have 'contact visits' with his dad. That prompted a few difficult questions.

That must have been very difficult for you deltic, but it shows how children take the reality of single parent households as just another kind of normal arrangement.

Children accept many things on face value and I don't think a friend with a single parent is unusual these days. If they do ask questions just explain simply that the child's father lives somewhere else and reassure the child that you and his father live together and that will not change.

Is there something about the single parent household that you are not comfortable with?

I ask because people grapple most with those issues that present alternatives to their children, that the parents don't really want the children to realize are available.

Does a friend's family structure that is contrary to yours, make you uncomfortable?

I wonder if the poster was concerned about her child saying something tactless or possible that the child may worry about his own family splitting up. Personally I don't think either possibility is anything to worry about, if the child asks a question answer it honestly and leave it at that.

Now there's a distinct possibility!

Kids have a way of not only saying the most embarrassing thing possible, but also being informants on those conversations that parents think are private!

I can't understand why the always say the embarrassing things so much louder so that it is impossible to ignore.

LOL!

I have to stifle my laughter when I hear kids yelling out the worst possible, intimate detail they can while a horrified parent looks on.

When visiting my husband's mother (who is possibly the worst cook in the world) she cooked us a roast dinner. My son who was was about 5 announced "this is burnt, it's disgusting". I can still remember the feeling of horror! I took my son out of the room leaving my husband to deal with the moment. You can't punish a child for speaking the truth but, I told him that it was unkind to hurt people's feelings and he went back and apologised.