Brent is 10 years old.

Brent has a subscription to Sports Illustrated. He doesn't really read it but he saves them all. This came with a special that Randy ordered him last year after Auburn won the National Championship and SEC Championship. He got a t-shirt, hat and football with the subscription.



Anyway - yesterday in the mail he got the one with Paterno on the front walking off the field. I didn't even know Brent knew anything about this story but then he said something about that being Paterno and that he was fired but he shouldn't have been etc.
 
I asked him how he even knew this coach was fired and it all came to light. His best friend is from PA and well they are huge Penn State fans even though they have lived in GA for 20 years (parents not the kid)
 
so he apparently has been telling Brent all about how Joe Paterno was fired and he was the best coach in history of football and it was wrong to fire him. I then asked him why was he fired and he said well it had something to do with him not telling the police about abusing kids.
 
But that is all he knew and then the questions started on what did they mean about abusing kids, how did he abuse the kids etc.
 
I just told him that he knew another coach was doing bad things to children and didn't report it and YES he did deserve to be fired no matter what his friend thinks or his parents.
 




He would have asked more questions but it was close to dinner and I felt bad so I went to take a hot bath and he was distracted by me having him do a few chores.

Oh here is the cover to SI




 

That is tough Susan. I get mad when I see parents brainwashing their kids like that. I mean, they might not even do it intentionally, but obviously they are going off on their views enough for the child to talk about it with others.

You handled it very well. We haven't discussed it with the kids yet. We've been so busy lately, the kids really haven't been exposed to any news the past week or two.

I do want to have a conversation with both kids, and especially Milo about dangerous situation or people. Often I just assume they know what to do in an obviously bad situation, but in reality, they probably wouldn't.

As much as I have strong opinions on things, I always want and hope that my kids realize that they are my opinions and they can make their own, but most importantly their friends are welcome and allowed to have their own opinions too, but those opinions don't have to become your own.

I think you handled it well too.

Something also that you can say is that just because Paterno is a good coach doesn't make him a good person. He broke the law by not reporting a crime, and because of that other children were harmed.

I think you did fine Susan.

Ryan has asked about this also. DH watches Sports Center on tv all the time and Ryan asked why they kept talking about this really old guy instead of the cool football players.
 


I tried to explain as simply as possible that this coach knew about some very bad things happening and he did not tell anyone or try to stop it so he got fired. Ryan said GOOD!
 
So now everytime Sports Center is on and they start talking about Paterno again, Ryan says "uh oh, that bad guy again" and changes the channel! lol