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It can be tough to talk to your children about what’s happening in the world. It’s a scary and sensitive topic. Editor-in-chief of Today’s Parent, Sasha Emmons and Toronto Star columnist, Uzma Jalaluddin share five tips and strategies for broaching these discussions with your kids.

1. Be proactive in talking to your kids
   You don’t want them to get all their information from kids at school, and chances are, they’ve heard things. However, ask them what they know and let their questions be your guide to giving them the right amount of information.
2. Don’t scare them
   If they’re young, kids may need to be reassured that what’s happening is far away and unlikely to happen to them. This may not be strictly true, but until around at least age seven, many kids may not be able to handle the idea that bad things happen.

The first hijab I fell in love with was a large white cotton triangle bordered with three inches of dangling lace fringe. I tied the scarf in the only style that all truly cool hijabis were sporting: a twisty headband rolled on top, with a bandana underneath. The scarf was held together with safety pins, and most closely resembled my mom’s lace curtains.

I looked gooooood. Like, 1990s big-hair good.

I strutted around in this getup for most of junior high school, before graduating to the second hijab style that was trending. This involved a rectangular scarf that was pinned up, leaving the long end to dangle behind your back.

I still looked goooooood.

This was hijab chic in the ’90s. Those were simpler times. Back then the only places you could buy hijabs were small shops that also sold prayer beads, religious texts, exotic vegetables such as okra and bitter melon, and a few halal cows. It was your basic Walmart Supercentre for the newly immigrated set.