The World is a Scary Place

In the wake of so many negative events (seriously, it seems like these things are occurring daily recently), it is so difficult to keep a child guarded from the news. As my son sits and asks about things, I have no choice but to respond in a diplomatic, and un-biased fashion.

It pains me that I have to explain evil to him at all. When I was his age, the worst we had to worry about was getting into the house before dark... as I grew older, kidnapping became the thing to watch for. Now... you have a whole slew of things.

People running over others for the sport of it.
People who claim allegiance to organizations and harm others as part of their allegiance.
People who beat babies to death.
People who shoot people for no reason.
People who to into schools and shoot people for no good reason.
People who kill animals for no good reason.

It's really endless. And it's sad. The state of the world is declining. How do you explain that to a 4 year old without killing their spirit?

The best I can do is to leave out defining elements and simply state there are just bad people in the world who want to hurt others. It doesn't matter who they are, or why they have these feelings. They are bad. You have to be observant enough to notice when things are strange... and brave enough to report it.