Bad News

“SHHHH! The news is on, be quiet, I’m trying to listen!”

I can still hear Dad’s abrupt voice as the 6 o’clock news came on of an evening, my brothers and I running around making a racket.

In our family home when I was a kid, it was an unwritten rule that as soon as the news came on, we were to sit in silence as a family as we had our lesson in current affairs and world news.

As Dad sat in his chair with a glass of beer, Mum would catch glimpses of the stories in between preparing the dinner. We could not wait for the commercial breaks to come on so we could speak!

The news bulletin went for 30 minutes, stories were brief and direct, and I always remember the weatherman pointing out all the cities on the massive cardboard map being the most exciting part of the bulletin. When the news finished, we ate dinner, had our showers and got our pyjamas on, ready to watch A Country Practice, Family Ties or The Flying Doctors – as a family. It was what most families did back then. We ate together and watched the TV together. There was usually just one television set per household. (Who would have thought we could survive with just one?)

Now let’s fast forward a generation.

We now have a news update at least every hour, on the hour, on free-to-air viewing, that’s on the television and does not include the continuous updates online. Then there are the stations that run news only for 24 hours a day. More and more breaking news constantly shoved in our faces, has made the 6 o’clock ‘family time’ a thing of the past at least in my household.

Is that because I am too busy to sit and watch the news? Well, partly, but more importantly it is due to me wanting to avoid all of the ‘bad news’ that seems to be infiltrating through the entire bulletin. Recently I have found myself flicking the television off as soon as the news comes on due to the anxiety the stories are causing my children. I had not realised what was causing all of the questions I was being asked each night when I put them to bed. When I would go in and say goodnight to them, I would be getting all the questions – “why did that man murder his family?” “How often do earthquakes kill people and are we going to die from them?” “Will you and Dad die from COVID-19?” “Do kids get cancer or just old people and will I die from cancer?” So here I was, instead of looking forward to the snuggles goodnight, I was dreading going in to tuck my children in because of the difficult questions that were keeping them from falling asleep in peace. 

How things have changed. Where my parents used to make us sit down and watch the news for educational purposes, I now, as a parent myself, avoid the news at all costs, not only for my own sanity but for the protection of my children. These days I feel that the only thing they are learning from the news is that awful feeling in their tummies called ‘anxiety.’

Yes, I want my children to be resilient and aware, but I also want them to be children for as long as possible. How can we expect them to understand why someone murders, what their chances are of being killed by an earthquake or the likelihood of them getting cancer? Call me a helicopter parent, I don’t care, I just don’t want to expose my children to such tragedy and fear before their brains are mature enough to fully understand it.

They say too much exposure to gaming devices is bad for their health. I get that and definitely agree, but watching the daily news, I believe, is equally as bad or if not worse. Learning about how to be kind and respectful, carefree and confident, and to speak up when they are afraid. These are vital life lessons that no news bulletin will tell them about.

Already after just a few weeks of switching off the news, the anxiety and difficult questions have eased right off. I may not be able to protect them from schoolyard tales and of course kids will be kids in that regard, but switching off is helping my children to ‘switch off’ to the often sensationalised news stories that are trying to turn them into adults overnight.