[swany]

After two years, my ten year old daughter asked me: "If we didn't know this was going to happen, how come all the tv cameras were on the buildings when it did happen?" She sounded angry. She's been wondering this all along. I felt terrible for not knowing her thoughts on this. She has never really wanted to speak about it in detail, ever.

When I told her the news cameras weren't filming until after the first plane hit (because it was a big news story) and happened to get coverage on the second plane, she sat down and sighed with relief. Then went and found a little rhinestone American Flag pin shaped as a star her grandmother gave her this spring, pinned it on her blouse and said, "I wanna wear this to school today." I told her I was very proud of her.

Two years....where have I been?

[Wolfstar]

I'll bet many thousands of children internalized a lot about that day, and still don't know how to talk about it.

[OldFriend]

Most parents have no idea what their children's perceptions are of world events or even family events.

Ask them, talk to them, get them to draw pictures, and ask them some more. Tell them what you think of certain happenings and ask them if they think you are right.

My kids were in their twenties before they spoke of their fears when they were little. I felt so bad. Simple misconceptions that caused them unnecessary worries.

[hellinahandcart]

So sad. And quite an insight into how it might have all looked and sounded to an eight-year-old.

You might want to explain to her that New York City is also "News City"; the camera trucks are practically ubiquitous here and of course they were all going to rush right over to the WTC. But it still took time to get there, depending on where they were when the first plane hit. I don't recall any televised footage from street level until after the second plane hit---up til that point, every channel was showing the same live feed from the NBC traffic helicopter, which had already been up in the air at the time.