Those of us who live in Colorado spent last week waiting for news in the case of Jessica Ridgeway, the little 10-year-old girl who disappeared on her way to school more than one week ago. Sadly, authorities confirmed on Friday that the body that was found a few miles away from her house was that of little Jessica. Even though I didn't know her, I couldn't help but cry when I found out about her horrible murder. I thought about the poor little girl, and then I thought about her parents, who are probably inconsolable today.
But then I realized I didn't know what I would tell my own 6-year-old daughter, since parents–and even kids–in our area have not done much more than talk of the news of Jessica's horrible fate.
I'm not one of those moms who think that you have to lie to your kids in order to make them believe that life is perfect and that evil doesn't exist, but I also don't make much of an effort to explain to them how cruel human beings can be at times. I feel like they have a whole life ahead of them and plenty of opportunities to learn this.
Read more ¿Qué más?: Teen's senior photo banned from yearbook because she took it with her newborn (VIDEO)
But Jessica Ridgeway's case is a bit different, since it happened in a city just north of where we live and it's caused a huge stir in our community. This is why I didn't think it was wise to simply ignore it.
So t__he first thing that my husband and I did was explain to our daughter that a bad person had taken little Jessica while she walked to school;__ that this person had caused the little girl much harm, and that sadly they had finally killed her. We didn't, however, go into details about how the little girl's body had been dismembered.
Afterwards, we stressed to our daughter that nothing was going to happen to her, that we would always be there and we'd always make sure she was safe. Finally, we reminded her what she had to do in case a stranger ever approached her.
Our daughter asked a couple of questions, hugged us, and then we kept talking about other things. Even though part of me didn't really want to say anything to her, I also didn't want her to find out from other people on the street or at school–and I wanted to make sure that she would not be left with any unanswered questions. As hard as it was to talk about this with her, I think my husband and I did the right thing.
Image via Westminster Police
