Talking to kids about climate change

Then there’s the difficult question of how to share your own feelings. You can’t be fake with kids, because they are so good at reading the emotional temperature underneath our words. If you’re very anxious about the planet, it’s probably better to say something like, “This worries me too sometimes, and it also feels big enough that I want us to figure it out together.” That’s honest without burdening children with your fears for humanity. What you want to avoid is either extreme: the false cheeriness that kids always detect as a lie, or the doom that reinforces their darkest fears.

Then give them something practical to do. You can talk about climate-friendly choices in all aspects of family life. It doesn’t have to be anything grand. Doing something positive in your own home or community may provide an antidote to young people who may feel powerless.

Normalize this as an ongoing conversation, not some huge scary topic for a big sit-down chat. It doesn’t have to be discussed all at once, and you shouldn’t try to do that. Climate change is going to come up again — after the next heat wave, the next fire season. It’s a good idea to treat it the way you’d treat any big topic that grows with a kid over years: a little more truth added each time, calibrated to what they can carry at that age. That takes the pressure off getting it perfect on the first try.

Keep an eye on your children. Some children articulate their worries loudly. Others go quiet. They may stop wanting to talk about the news, or become oddly fixated on something adjacent, like whether or not the family pet will be OK in a heat wave. Even saying nothing can be a signal. You don’t need to force a conversation, but it’s worth checking in obliquely: “You were a bit quiet when the wildfires came up on the TV. Do you want to talk about it, or not right now?” Giving them the option matters as much as the question itself.

Finally, if you don’t have an answer, that’s fine. “I don’t know, let’s see what we can find out,” is one of the most reassuring sentences a child can hear from an adult, because it models exactly a skill they’ll need for the rest of their life. You have to ask questions and stay steady, instead of shutting down or making something up.

And of course, there’s nothing “special” about these techniques; parents might find them worth thinking about for any big, difficult topic. But wherever you personally stand, remember that the fears of children, even if you feel they’re exaggerated or irrational, are very powerful in their minds and need the recognition and reassurance that we alone can provide.

Growing Community is written by Kayla Bailey, director of Aspen Family Connections; Renee Giles, AFC’s early childhood connector; and Katherine Sand, who works on special projects at AFC. It runs every other Wednesday in the Aspen Daily News. It features topics of interest related to early childhood, parenting and education. To reach the authors, email ksand@aspenk12.net, rgiles@aspenk12.net or kbailey@aspenk12.net.