In her column this week, Nataliia Bushkovska writes about having to wake up your kids early one morning to tell them: “The war has started!" - and then watching them getting used to living with war.
I soooo understand this. “Лишь бы не было войны» - “as long as there is no war” was my grandmother’s go to phrase in any life situation that seemed tough. She also grew up during world war 2. To me, a kid growing up in the Soviet Union in the 80’s, her fears seemed like quaint, hopelessly outdated fairy tales. What war could we possibly be fearing now, in the modern world? It had been half a century since WW2 and to a kid, that seemed like ancient history that would surely never return. War was far, far away, alive only in the distant memory of a paranoid old woman. Grandma is no longer here (my god, she would have been absolutely terrified), but it turned out that war was not far away at all, after all. It was simply hiding behind an old shower curtain. One quick jerk of the hand and you and your own children are now staring it in the face too. That’s all it took. What a rude wake up call to the nature of the reality we live in.
Being a parent today requires a lot of faith, in yourself especially. But every time period has its own dangers for your children. My parents worried about all the diseases that could harm us before all the vaccines were created. You are doing a great job teaching your son to thrive in his time.
I soooo understand this. “Лишь бы не было войны» - “as long as there is no war” was my grandmother’s go to phrase in any life situation that seemed tough. She also grew up during world war 2. To me, a kid growing up in the Soviet Union in the 80’s, her fears seemed like quaint, hopelessly outdated fairy tales. What war could we possibly be fearing now, in the modern world? It had been half a century since WW2 and to a kid, that seemed like ancient history that would surely never return. War was far, far away, alive only in the distant memory of a paranoid old woman. Grandma is no longer here (my god, she would have been absolutely terrified), but it turned out that war was not far away at all, after all. It was simply hiding behind an old shower curtain. One quick jerk of the hand and you and your own children are now staring it in the face too. That’s all it took. What a rude wake up call to the nature of the reality we live in.
Being a parent today requires a lot of faith, in yourself especially. But every time period has its own dangers for your children. My parents worried about all the diseases that could harm us before all the vaccines were created. You are doing a great job teaching your son to thrive in his time.