We decided that our kids are old enough to learn about the grownup world. We recorded the evening news and sat down with them to watch it. Here are some of the stories that day:
- Iowa Caucus voting underway (lots of talk, no one knows anything of course)
- Rookie cop catches the person setting fires (a long story of how the tip came in involving families and felons, and none of us could understand it, or why we should care.)
- Record cold, Florida oranges are in trouble
- Dead body found on one Queen Elizabeth’s many houses. (Clearly nothing to do with the royal family, but reported as if they are serial murders.)
- Dow Jones started the year up 200 points. (This is explained by a reference to “The January Effect”, with no other explanation.)
- New hybrid shark discovered (predictably dubbed “SuperShark”)
- Veterans helping to rebuild bad Baltimore neightborhoods (nothing bad to say, it’s great)
We were surprised by how much the boys enjoyed it. The 8-year old had lots of questions about politics. Such as, “Dad, why did you say half of the Republicans are nutjobs?”
Then we asked the 6-year old what he thought. “The news is great!” Really? How come? “It’s all fires and big sharks!”