Bad people

First Violet wanted to go show Great Grandpa her bird. 
Or rather my bird. 


Then on the way home for a sleepover at our house, I asked Violet, 
"Now that it's summer, what time do you go to bed?"

She quickly answered, "How am I suppose to know? I can't even 
tell time."

Violet is just 6, and finished kindergarten last week. 

So after arriving home, we were helping her get ready for bed when 
I told her, "In the morning, if you get up before us, be sure not 
to open any of the outside doors, or the alarm will go off."

She looked confused and asked, "What's an alarm?"

Grandpa was standing near by so he explained as gently as he could 
that if any bad people were to try to get into our house at night we 
would be safe because "the loud alarm would alert the police."

She nodded right away to that, like she totally understood, and then 
she said, "I know about bad people. We have practices at 
school. Our teacher turns off the lights and locks our door and 
we all hide and we stay very quiet so if the bad person comes in 
they won't know we are there."

Okay, so I realize that's our reality now, but it was hard to hear our 
purely innocent little 6 year old granddaughter talking like this.

Yet, this is her world. This is the world our grandchildren live in.

And they have to take precautions, and I guess I'm glad they are 
being taught them.

But ...what a reality check for me hearing those words from her. I 
just felt so sad. I went to bed feeling sad.

But Violet, she takes it all in stride. She knows no other kind of 
world. And thankfully no bad people are in her little life. 

And thankfully she is made to be up for this world. I have to 
remind myself of this.

Because you know what else she did? Earlier in the evening as I 
was making dinner, she asked if she could eat her fruit that I had 
cut up and ready for our meal. I was busy in the kitchen and I just 
said, "Sure you can eat your fruit now."

She had no idea I could see her, so she definitely was not doing this 
for my benefit, but as I turned around I saw her bow her little head, 
fold her arms, and say a prayer of thanks and blessing on her little 
cut up apples.

At that very moment, I was filled with thanks to her parents for  
they are the ones who taught her this. And later that night as I was 
lying in bed worrying about Violet being taught to hide from bad 
people, I told myself, "But she knows how to pray! She knows who 
to turn to."

And THAT is the peace and calm I am hanging on to for her.

3 comments:

grandmapeg said...

I agree, it is sad that our grandchildren have to be taught about bad people coming into the classrooms, but it the reality of today. It is very comforting to know that our grandchildren are taught about prayer and the comfort it can bring. Thanks for sharing.

Richard said...

When you were in elementary school we had drills to hide under our desks to protect from broken window glass if we were bombed, but what should have been really terrifying were the little civil defense name tags we wore so they could identify our remains!

Scrapally said...

That is the sweetest ending to the story...love it.

Look what happened last night

  Just a little pre-graduating gathering for our DIL Amy.... Not everyday a Mom of 7 and a Grandma of 7, graduates from college. It was not ...