CITIZEN
KID Politics
and Parenting:
We Need Help!
BY JESSICA GREGG
fter the contentious 2016 elections,
every one of Alison Bomba’s clients
brought up the topic of politics and
how fearful it made them.

Bomba is a Frederick-based psycholo-
gist who specializes in child and adolescent
anxiety — the clients who were feeling so
overwhelmed were actually kids.

“It came up in all of my sessions,” she says.

“I had a lot of kids coming in with very high
anxiety and a lot of fear.”
This year, of course, brings another
round of elections. There is also a presiden-
tial impeachment inquiry unfolding in our
capital. And a 24-hour news cycle that has
increased its reach from our own phones and
24 Washington FAMILY JANUARY 2020
TVs to Snapchat, TikTok and the other places
our children like to inhabit.

How can today’s parents educate their
kids about the political process and at the
same time shield them from the tumultuous
Twitter tit-for-tat that feels so demoraliz-
ing? We asked media and parenting experts
for their navigational advice.

Find their fears
When Bomba talked with her clients about
their post-election anxiety, she found out
that many had been exposed to news they
were not ready for. It’s hard to shelter kids
in today’s news-saturated world, she admits.

Even if parents succeed at doing this, there
is another influencer: kids at school.

“Kids talk at school and information gets
skewed, like that old-fashioned telephone
game,” she says.

If a child is worried, find out what he or she
heard, and ask about the “what if” scenarios
that are going through their minds.

“Ask them, ‘What are you afraid of?’”
Bomba says. “If it’s something ridiculous or
absurd, you can squash that right away.”
Younger children might think that news
they heard will lead to a catastrophic result,
such as war. Parents can tell them that’s really
unlikely to happen, and using collaborative
problem solving, they can brainstorm with a
child for five reasons why, she says.