How to Tell Little Red Riding Hood that We Killed the Big Bad Wolf

by Karen M. Rider

Answering curious 5 year old’s questions about bin Laden no easy task for mom

“What’s a binLaden, Mommy?”  My five year old asked with the same curiosity she would have approached any of a thousand other new encounters with the world around her.

I was driving at the time. Her timing could not have been worse.

My first thought was how do I explain evil to a child. In this case, the explanation of one concept was not going to be served by describing it in relation to its opposite, in this case, goodness. It must have seemed to her like an eternity passed, or maybe she thought I was ignoring her question (was I?); she persisted.

“Did you hear me, Mama? What’s a binLaden?”

I did not want to answer too quickly. From her tone, and the fact that her little sister was napping in the car seat next to her, there was no chance of escaping my older daughter’s inquisition. What I can only now assume was an avoidance tactic, I asked my daughter where did she hear about ‘a binLaden.’

“They talk about it on the radio. And on Daddy’s news show. So, what is it?”

Bear with me while I share the rest of the conversation:

“bin Laden was a person. A few years ago-before you were born-this man did a very bad thing. Now, he is dead.” By this time we had pulled into our driveway. Still, her questions came at me like a round of gunfire.

“What bad thing did he do? How did he die?”

“He made a plan to send airplanes crashing into the big buildings in New York City and a few other cities. The buildings in NYC were called the World Trade Center.”

“Were there people in the buildings or on the airplanes?”

“Yes. Thousands of people.”

“Did those people die?”

“Yes, they died.”

“That’s sad. Why did he kill those people?”

I knew it would come, the dreaded “why”. Her gaze was intent upon me. Her attention hung on my every word. I was in dangerous territory. I proceeded with extreme caution. I didn’t want her to only know of Osama bin Laden the terrorist who orchestrated an attack on America and her people. There had to be a lesson here. Didn’t there?

“It’s hard to understand, even for a grown-up like me, sweetie. But there are some people in the world who don’t have goodness in their hearts. When they don’t agree with the way things are going in the world, they try to change them to the way they think it should be. Sometimes, instead of talking about differences or problems, some people get very upset and they act very badly. Mr. bin Laden was part of a group of men who wanted the rest of the world to see and do things their way. They thought the best way to get people to understand what they wanted was to hurt them in a really big way.”