News

I turned off the radio and talked to my daughter instead. She sat in the front of the car, her mouth slightly open as always and stared out of the window, dreaming. I wondered if she had heard what I had heard on the one o'clock news, the atrocities, the killings, the paedophiles, the cyclone, the bombings and the racism. She didn't ask any questions, I wonder if she had heard.

I hate the news now. I don't want to hear it, it depresses me and leaves me wondering where the humanity is, where the kindness has gone and where the beautiful planet is going. I am scared for my daughter and her children, as our grandparents were probably scared for us. 

But I don't want my children over-protected, naive and ill informed. I would like them to understand the world from an early age without being frightened of it, to be sensitive to other peoples plight and emotionally attached to the whole earth and not just to Sussex, with its comfortable ways and privileges. 

So we will start with CBBC Newsround together, a nightly ritual in between their obsession with Tom and Jerry and Junior Bake Off. A gentle introduction to the world and its problems, hopefully.