Entry nº 8: Danger and innocence

The other day my little brother came next to me and made me a naive question. ‘Is it true that thieves are the only “bad” people that exist, isn’t it?’ Although it seems a very simple question to be answered. I got confused in that instant, I doubted about what to respond. I didn’t want to lie to him but I didn’t dare to explain him the cruel reality. In that very moment all my fears came to my mind and I thought that If I didn’t say the truth he would be in danger. I thought that If I let him believe that, he would trust in anybody and somebody could hurt him or something worse. And I got scared of thinking that someone could take him away. But in a fraction of seconds I wandered my self if I had the right to break his innocence filling his head with such terrible and scary information.
I told him ‘yes, but there are another bad people over there’ and then he asked ‘are adult people bad?’ I doubted again but this time I knew that it was my obligation to tell him about bad people not to the point of letting him confused and terrifyed, but he should be aware of some dangers. I couldn’t say the whole truth.
How could I explain to a seven-year-old innocent kid that the majority of the criminals nowadays are young people, teenagers and even children like him. How to explain him that many of them are forced by adults to do that or teached to steal since they were very young, that they know only one way of living and that is through crime. How to explain him the consequences of the use of drugs and drug abuse and many other factors of these children’s lives?
So I just told him that there were some bad adults that steal children and that he had to be careful and he shouldn’t talk to strangers.
But his last question followed immediately this answer. And he asked: ‘but adult people form my family are not bad, ins’t they?’ To that last question I said ‘yes, they are good people you can trust on them.’
But while I was saying this I was thinking in all those kids who were victims of their own relatives. Those whose parents treat them with violence and neglection, and those children that suffer from sexual abuse form their relatives, this last thought scared me. Affortunately my last answer satisfied my brother’s curiosity and he left. But he left me thinking how I will be able to protect him from all those dangers.