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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Gaby Hinsliff

‘They’re entitled to know the world isn’t always a safe place’: how to talk to your children about the permacrisis

What shall we tell the kids?
What shall we tell the kids? Composite: Guardian Design; Getty Images; AFP; REUTERS; ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock

When John Adams and his two daughters settled down to watch a family film, he wasn’t expecting questions about bombing raids. But as they discussed what to watch, he spotted 12-year-old Helen scrolling through YouTube, looking for clips of air-raid sirens. She wanted to know what it would sound like, if the worst came to the worst.

“The question this morning at breakfast was: ‘What are we meant to do if there’s a nuclear attack?’” says Adams, a stay-at-home dad from Caterham in Surrey, who runs the parenting blog DadBlogUK. “That one just took me right back to my childhood, when these were real practical questions and everyone knew that you were meant to get under a table or a flight of stairs.”

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