Written by: jensmiles3
9/28/2008 12:00 AM

If your daughter went to see Kit Kittredge: An American Girl this past Summer 2008 or is one of the millions who has read the six or more books that detail Kit’s life from 1929 to 1934, you might be fielding a few unusual questions from your daughter these days.

Every channel that reports news and nearly every sound byte has compared the recent 2008 economic “crisis” to The Great Depression. Some say it’s not even close, some say it’s “in the same family”, and some even say it’s got the potential to be worse. To your daughter (and many of adults) the details matter very little. What matters is that your daughter overheard that we’re facing another Great Depression.

Now, I won’t overdramatize the situation in my house. My daughter didn’t look at me immediately and say, “Are we going to lose our house? Is daddy going to lose his job? Will we have to take in borders?” That is not to say that some children haven’t drawn those literal lines.

No it seems for my daughter it is much more subtle, a general anxiety perhaps, of knowing just enough details of a past era and not near enough details about how the present financial system really works. In many ways, as back in the 1930s, fear of the unknown is much more poisonous, powerful and painful than knowledge of specific threats.

When WAMU hit the news headlines as the biggest bank failure in US history, my daughter has another bit of information to add to her curiously increasing anxiety. She doesn’t have to be particular astute to remember: that’s the bank where we go, that’s the bank with the video games and funny mirrors in the corner where we play while we wait for Mommy.

Like all the callers to the talk shows, the expert shows, the online blogs, my nine-year-old voracious reader (whose ninth birthday was a Hobo-Theme complete with sleeping in large AC-Compressor unit boxes for a Hooverville) is simply asking herself – what does this mean for me?

This morning I took an opportunity to attempt to pre-empt concerns that I am sure will continue to wriggle in her brain no matter what assurances we give her. I explained that it was the very policies of FDR (whom she loves, obviously, more as a fictional character than historical character because of the Kit books) and the creation of the FDIC protection laws that mean this “situation with money on the news” cannot, but definition, be like The Great Depression. If it was, every penny we have/had in WAMU would be gone. Her eyes got big. I’m still perfecting the art of leaving out unnecessary ‘ifs’. But, I quickly added, because of the federal protections FDR created, all our money is there, all our bills are paid, and we just belong to a different bank now.

I explained that we were not at risk of losing our house, as unfortunately many are. One we didn’t borrow the money from any of the banks that have gone under, and we don’t owe more than our house is worth. I added that Dad has a good job that is not directly related to the financial industry. Then, for added parental self-soothing, gave the general statement, “We’re fine. We’re going to continue to be fine.”

“So daddy’s going to work, not sneaking off to the food kitchen like Kit’s daddy?”
“Right.”

And that was that. She nodded and wandered off. I looked at my husband, he shrugged his shoulders.

Did she hear me? Was the timing wrong to talk about it? Should I have waiting until she asked? Did I just make her worry about things she wasn’t even thinking about?

I’ve sat at this sentence for many minutes trying to sum up and keep thinking of numerous tangents that could fill another fifteen pages… arguments over whether children should watch news, argument over the evil-TV in general, explanations of my own fascination with the 1930s and my bond with my daughter through that, arguments over children’s right or non-right to know the financial information of the family, arguments over the potential for grandiose assumptions of a 9-year-old’s intellectual sophistication. Maybe some other blog, some other day.

In honor of the 1930s, FDR, and the Shirley Temple-inspire optimism of 1930s film, I do focus today on our blessings; I strive to not promote or promulgate the fear-machine of the media or even neighborhood-rumor-mill; and that we are truly blessed with each other regardless of our bank account, stock portfolio, home-value, or economic prospects. My main focus in the coming months is to make sure MY DAUGHTER can choose to think this way as well.

Reference:
Kit Kittredge Movie
American Girl Website

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