Is it important to encourage children to experience historic events?

Question

In the UK there's a royal wedding coming up and there will be lots of television coverage of the event for those who are interested. Personally I'm not.

This will also be a public holiday, so no work and no school. My initial idea was to take advantage of the holiday and the spring weather and the family would go to the beach or do something else fun outdoors.

However, this potentially deprives my children of the chance to experience the event. It's even possible that in many decades time they will want to be able to look back and remember it.

One option is to ask them, of course. And I will. But should I also be helping them to decide one way or the other (especially if it's an event that makes me feel a bit curmudgeonly)?

Answer 1

There are a few different ways to address this question:

• I'm not interested, but there are good reasons why my child should pay attention to it
• I'm not interested and don't think my child should be either, but eventually they might disagree and will feel aggreived at my choice
• my interest is secondary, my child will be bored by it, but they need to know about such things in order to create opinions
• I am interested but don't want to foist my choices on my child

... and doubtless many other subtleties.

In this situation, I'm with you - I'm not interested in it. I think we'll strike a middle ground because we've got some people coming over. Those who are interested can watch the TV, those not can sit in the garden and play or chat. I'm sure the kids will want to watch TV for a while, not least to copy the adults who are doing that, but the smaller ones will be quickly bored and will go and do something else.

So they'll have a bit of exposure, perhaps enough to remember, but I'll be doing my bit by setting an example and being a grouch in the garden!

Answer 2

I can tell you this much. Every historic event that my parents made me watch as a child, I'm glad that they made me do it. So I would recommend that you do take advantage of this opportunity.

Answer 3

At least give them the opportunity, if they are not interested they will probably let you know that fact but at least then you are providing the forum for them to acknowledge the event. I know I barely remember the moon landing when it happened, but I do know I got to watch it on TV at the time so I feel I have that connection. I remember the wedding for Charles and Di but didn't care so walked out when it happened, at least then if people asked me about it I could give my own opinion on it.

I let my kids participate as much as possible, bringing them to historical sites and parks now, some interest my son and some do not but sometimes even he surprises me by saying something about the visit months later. I'm all for giving them as many opportunities as possible to know and see something different, I believe that's my duty as a parent, but I let them decide how long they want to be involved.

Answer 4

If your children aren't old enough to decide for themselves you will ultimately be "helping them to decide" anyway because they will likely be doing what you are doing anyway. If you are at home in front of the TV, they will be at home in front of the TV. If you decide to take them to the beach they will be at the beach.

You can base your decision on quite a few things:

• How significant is the event if you take away the hype? Is it likely Will is going to be the next king? Is it likely they will still be together by the time your children grow up?

• How significant is the event culturally? How much does your part of the UK identify with monarchy? Is watching the wedding part of how your country identifies itself?

• How many other people are watching it? Will you children feel left out if they miss out on this? Maybe there teacher will ask them to write an essay about it?

• Will your children's needs be better met by spending the afternoon with a loving family or sitting in front of the box? Is this something that will bring your family closer together.

Answer 5

Whether it will be important or not really depends on the child. Whether they have any "wonder" in the bigger picture of life. Some people are nose-down, focused on here-and-now, others are dreamers. And you may have an idea of where your child will be 10 years from now, but you won't be entirely sure.

Of course, if you find that you look back on historic events in your life with awe/amazement, your kids are more likely to emulate that. So, without any further information, the question is whether you would enjoy it or not.

Personally, it's not that big of a deal to me. However, I'd be tempted to show my kids if it were age-appropriate (e.g., 7+ for girls, probably 8 or 9+ for boys) if only because they may look back on it with that sense of wonder and appreciation when they're older, and it doesn't hurt. But I probably wouldn't spend $100 per ticket on it - watching the TV or Youtube coverage of it would be fine. And I wouldn't get upset if they weren't interested.

Answer 6

Your question is regarding events of historical significance, and I will use an example in my life that is of historical and relgious significance to answer. My sister is agnostic and they do not celebrate Easter. However, she wants her children to have exposure to the context of the holiday so that they can form their own thoughts, make their own choices and show their own interests and preferences as they grow older. So perhaps understanding the context of the current historical event is what you might want to make sure you expose your child to, and then depending on the level of interest they show, you could continue to give them more exposure. So sitting down a week before the holiday, discussing why everyone will be getting that day off and teaching a little more about it (but maybe the school is doing that in this case) and then having the opportunity to gauge for yourself if the child would enjoy more exposure to that historical knowledge would be appropriate. If the child is enthused, then you can plan your 5 hour wait on the curbside to watch the procession go by. If less than enthused, go play at the beach and watch the coverage on TV later. I think some discussion with you is warrented but you can gauge anything beyond that.

Answer 7

Some great and thoughtful answers so thanks. I'm answering here because the event is over and I think we found a middle way which worked.

We camped and surfed as planned but the wedding build up was on the car radio on the way down and I let the kids choose their favourite newspaper (all of them plastered with photos) from the service station and we caught bits of it on the small telly at the campsite reception office. So I think they'll be able to say they remember the fuss of it all and were part of the national mood even though their actual live TV minutes were in single digits.