Are you telling your kids? Are you waiting until they ask?

We don't usually have the news on when the kids are around, as you can imagine. My oldest is very tenderhearted and will be quite upset when he finds out about Steve Irwin so dh and I decided not to mention it unless he hears about it and asks. I mean it isn't like his grandparents or something, but would still affect him, just not as directly. He will still see the show on Animal Planet and will find out eventually, but we didn't want to ruin his day off from school.

Now, the kids at school could mention it and we will deal with it then, but they might not, either.

So, are we doing the right thing? This is such a tricky subject!!!

My dd only watched his show once. It was an episode dealing with koala bears (which dd loves), so my dd was paying more attention to the koala's than the host. Other than that, my dd has no clue who Steve Irwin is, so this will have no impact on her life.

Do all the kids at your ds's school watch Steve Irwin? I don't remember any of the kids at my dd's school ever talking about this show (truth be told, I didn't even know the show was still on), so it must not be very popular in this area. If you're worried about someone telling your ds at school, then I would suggest telling him now. It would be better to have you comfort him if he gets upset as opposed to him hearing it at school where you wouldn't be around to help him deal with it.

__________________
"I learned the hard way that they all say things you want to hear." ~ Sara Bareilles

None of our kids really watched him. They know who he is and everything though. My husband is the one who's distraught over it :/

My ds(7) was sitting in the room when he heard the news on TV. Needless to say, he is quite upset. He now says he hates stingrays. Right now he is too upset to talk about it so we are going to try to distract him today and then we will discuss it with him later when he is calm.

I heard this on the news the a.m. & I started tearing up. My DD asked what was wrong. My kids are too little to know who he is. But this is just heartbreaking. Doesn't he have a little baby? I thought I remembered him dangling his baby really close to a croc. Of all animals to take his life?? A stingray. Not even a croc. My cousin does the best impression of him.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/0...win/index.html

He has two kids I believe, a little boy around the age of 3 and then a little girl who is 7 maybe? I remember he got a lot of flak for feeding a crocodile while holding his infant son. I have to admit, that action did not impress me.

My kids haven't been interested in how show in a few years now but they'll probably feel sad about it a little bit. I don't know that I'll make a point of telling them.

Luckily my kids don't know who he is so it's not an issue for us! They don't watch the news so they will not hear about it.

__________________

A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I am doing ok, I'm upset and feeling really sad about it. I 'm still in shock even though I found out as soon as the news broke here in the us. I told both of the girls a little while ago and my oldest was sad, my little one is full of questions and both were sad but not too bad. They will want to talk about it over the next few days. My little one wished he hadn't gone into the water. She wants to see a stingray when we go to sea world so she doesn't hate them. They both understand that his job was around wild animals and animals are unpredictable. Thus the element of danger that made him partially so popular. The other was his incredible personality and halarious reactions woaaaaaaaaah crickey! Did you see that? Take a look at this... as he goes in closer again to make sure all of us at home can actually SEE what is so dangerous. He had a real love for animals and an exceptional tallent for helping to educate hundreds and thousands about the wildlife in Australia and around. He will be missed!

__________________
~Home is where your heart is~

His son Bob is 2 (he'll be 3 in December I think) and daughter Bindi is 8.

We are big fans here. My older kids were up last night when I found out, so I told them. I told the younger kids at breakfast. It's best for kids to hear it from you, and soon.

We are deciding what we want to do. We've talked about sending cards and making a donation to the crocs at our zoo in his memory.

I think taking action helps with grieving.

__________________
WAHM of 7!

My oldest daughter came racing into the kitchen last night where I was sitting at the table working on some things and yelled at me in disbelief, "Mom!! The Croc Hunter is dead!!" It threw me off at first, wondering why she was "excited" about it, but I realized it was probably shock on her part. We don't watch the show, I think the kids sometimes watched it at school. Regardless, it's heart wrenching to think he's gone now to leave behind a wife and two little children. My heart and prayers go out to his family.
As for telling your son, Claire, wait until later in the day today, but go ahead and tell him. It's best he hear it from you and cry now if he needs to instead of getting upset and crying at school, possibly invoking a call home from the teacher. I think he'll deal with it more comfortably at home.