Zoë has started to tune her ears into the morning news. They are on as soon as Matt enters the kitchen at eight o’ clock. But while Matt listens selectively and usually intuitively skips whatever might trouble him, she doesn’t.
Every sound bite enters her nine-year old auditory channels and is swiftly forwarded to her decoding center which is quite active. The little cogs and belts are churning away as she processes news bits, such as: nineteen year old arrested for torture and murder of a 37-year old Lithuanian woman, suspect arrested for the rape and killing of a seventeen year old girl on her way back from school, fourteen year old sexually assaulted and strangled by her driver.
And as always, all of this is conveyed in a matter-of-fact tone in under three minutes i.e., before she gets a chance to see her Weetabix cereal bloat up with milk and to sink her spoon into it.
Mind you, this is on a good morning.
I have made daring stunts across piles of Lego and castle extravaganzas from remote corners of the house to slam the OFF button at the story of babies being slaughtered, and pregnant women raped and mutilated in front of their children.
If she thinks as straight and unfettered as she does when jotting down a math equation, there are only few logical conclusions for her to draw.
None of them are reassuring.
1 comment:
This is certainly a perk of not having TV. All of our news is fairly quiet. Sadly though, these kids have to be aware, to a certain extent, of what is out there in the world.
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