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.




Engage Your Kids
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Getting kids involved in elections can happen without anxiety,
says Marie Heath, an assistant professor of education at Loyola
University Maryland
Indeed, kids can “shape the world they live in and make it better,”
says Heath, who researches online and offline civic engagement.

Believing they matter is what she hopes for her students and her
own kids, ages 12, 10 and 8.

Here’s how it can be done.

First, find out what your kids care about, she says. If it’s the
environment, for example, encourage your children to find out how
this year’s candidates feel about climate change.

Ask your children what they would like to hear from the candidates
on these issues. They can go directly to the candidates’ websites to
find out what they have said or written.

If they can’t find this information, kids can reach out to the
candidates themselves. Then they can share what they’ve found
with their friends.

When her 8-year-old son pointed out that he can’t
vote, Heath told him, to his surprise, that he is still a
citizen — “It’s not something that magically happens
when you turn a certain age” — and that he has an
opportunity and obligation to
get involved.

“It’s important to help kids feel that they can
make a difference,” she says. T
Fact-Checking Tools
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How can
today’s parents
educate their kids
about the political
process and at the
ALL ART AND PHOTOS COURTESY OF GETTY IMAGES
same time shield
them from the
Your teen finds a news item on social media and doesn’t know if it’s
true or not. What next?
There are several sites that Common Sense Media
recommends for fact-checking. The complete list is available at
commonsensemedia.org, but here are three you can check out now.

All of the sites are rated for educational value, positive messages
and other factors. They also include reviews from both parents
and kids.

>> FactCheck.org
Recommended for kids ages 13 and older, this site looks into political
speeches, Facebook posts, science stories and more.

>> PolitiFact.com
tumultuous Twitter
Also for kids ages 13 and older, the site has a truth-a-meter, among
other features, that evaluates recent statements from politicians.

tit-for-tat that feels
>> Poynter.org
so demoralizing?
This journalism organization offers MediaWise, a digital initiative to
help teens become more media savvy. T
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