thank you all for the empathy and ideas for helping reduce and redirect some of my S26’s anxiety about the state of things. It is awful and scary and sad … and I also hate hearing him worry about his (and the world’s) future and talk about things with so much pessimism.
We have been talking a lot about how he can use his “straight white boy” privilege for good. How can he be an advocate for others, speak up when he hears something hateful, do something in his community to help. He volunteers regularly in a soup kitchen and a couple of his clubs raise money for food related causes.
But those headlines and the resulting TikTok and instagram reels are hard for him to escape (and he does get sucked in). I think one tactic I need to talk more about is regulating his social media consumption. I want him to be informed and it’s important to care about these things but learning to recognize his spiraling is more important.
As for how it’s affecting his school choices—absolutely no red states. He will apply for CA schools but prefers to go out of state. I want them as options. It will be his choice of course, but having D22 in CA and being able to get her home relatively quickly has been helpful.
Someone mentioned up thread about pursuing dual citizenship. DH is an Italian citizen but his passport lapsed years ago. And now we can’t find it. We are deep inside the labyrinth that is the Italian consulate but if we can get EU passports I will feel better about things too. I don’t want to have to use them but I want an escape hatch for my kids since one is available.
Thanks again, everyone.