Over the weekend, as mourners gathered somewhere in Paris to remember the victims of Friday’s terror attacks, a camera crew with the French TV show Le Petit Journal filmed a conversation between a French boy and his father. The father and son talk through the boy’s fear of the attacks. The result is touching, and a master class in how to talk about terrorist attacks to kids — and perhaps in how all of us could stand to think about terrorism and fear:
Watch: a French father and son’s touching conversation about the Paris attacks
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.
After the attacks, the boy is understandably terrified, convinced his family has to move out of Paris to be safe.
Son: We have to be really careful because we have to change houses.
Father: Oh no, don’t worry — we don’t need to move out. Paris is our home.
Son: But there’s bad guys, daddy.
Father: Yes, but there’s bad guys everywhere.
When the boy responds by saying, “They have guns,” the father responds beautifully — “They might have guns, but we have flowers”:
Father: Everyone is putting flowers. It’s to fight against guns.
Son: It’s to protect?
Father: Exactly.
Son: And the candles too?
Father: It’s to remember the people who are gone yesterday.
Son: The flowers and the candles are here to protect us.
Father: Yes.
Le Petit Journal’s interviewer asks the boy whether he feels better now. His answer is very simple: “Yes.”
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