Every day I am talking with my kids about the environmental crisis. It is about what we eat, why we take public transportation, do not fly, it is about the birds, insects, flowers in our garden, etc...: the beauty, the destruction & its causes, our agency.

My kids are 3 and 5.

They understand better than many adults. They care. And my 5 years old has a lot of questions. So we have multiple ongoing conversations to process all this. Often he asks: "but why do people do that if it is bad?" Good question I say. We take it slowly, step by step.

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I say for instance: well people have not understood, so this why we are trying to tell them. In fact this is what we do when we "save Earth", I say. "Saving Earth" has become a synonym of climate activism in my family...

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Of course, it is more than just "not understanding". There is a resistance as well. We will need to process that, continue our conversation about this. This is so important we often forget this: our children will need to process why we act so awfully collectively...

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They will need to navigate their way between cynicism and depression: no we weren't all "evil". It will be of crucial importance that they have seen adults acting. Not all adults were blind, dismissive, passive, or in denial. Some adults were facing the truth and tried to act.

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I am utterly convinced that this could really make the difference for children, the difference between making them face mental collapse when having to face the truth and having kept a door to process the grief. It will make the difference...

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if among these adults, there were a trusted person, a significant other... to maintain the necessary trust in these loved ones, the idea that one is not necessarily always entirely failed by the adults and caregivers one has loved and trusted with one's life. Yes...

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As a parent, as a caregiver, as a teacher, you can be this person. You can be this adult that will protect a child from mental collapse when discovering the truth. You can be this person that instead of being blind, passive or dismissive will hold children' hand and go...

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with them in this tragic but necessary journey towards climate and environmental awareness. There is no good age to start if only one takes it at the path our children can take.

My children are 3 and 5. That means we play a lot to construct meanings, ...

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to take different positions. What it means to save, what it means to destroy, why people destroy what is precious... all these questions we take through play.

I am holding my kids' hands. We are in this together. I pay attention to what they feel. I am there...

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to help them process but also paying attention to what I feel and how it affects them. I tell them about what I feel as well.

I know they are too small to process ALL. My 3 years old obviously has no real understanding of what it means to "destroy Earth"... His awareness...

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is likely to come as well through cognitive thresholds. Children at some point discover the meaning of what it means that we can die. Our children might have to discover the meaning that Earth could die as well.

Protecting them is not being silent about all this...

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Protecting them is holding their hands while helping them through the understanding of the climate and environmental crisis, at their pace, being careful and attentive to their feelings and representations, according to their cognitive and emotional understanding...

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I believe this also requires from us adult some mental work, some processing that we are not almighty protectors. We do have to mourn that. And that hurts. But it doesn't mean we should stop holding our kids' hands through this! If we do not take them in this journey...

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who will? shall they discover the truth by themselves, alone? Why are we deciding they should not be told the truth they can bear? do we think they are incompetent?
Why should we decide for them to deprive them of the agency they can have today in this?

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I am convinced that holding our kids' hands through this is the only pathway to resilience. They can process negative feelings if we help them. In fact that is how they learn to process negative feelings! How do we expect children to all of a sudden process...

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the environmental crisis, its direct implication for their life, the possibility of the end of humanity... if all they have been told by adults is: the sky is the limit, all is fine, we can enjoy never-ending consumption and infinite mobilities?

Silence is in fact...

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not just silence, it is justifying the lies that are holding this world and its exploitative economic system.

I do not think lying is a good path to resilience. Some level of processing is possible at all age.

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Let's hold our kids' hands! Let's be in this with them! Let's be agents together with them!

I honestly, sincerely, see this as true love. The best gift I can give to my kids: supporting their path to awareness and actions, while taking actions myself.

/The end.