To Talk or Not to Talk to Your Kids About Bin Laden

The moms and I were talking about bin Laden's death and I wondered if they talked to their kids about it. 

It seems like it depended on a few things: Are your kids old enough to remember the events of 9/11? How old are they, and does that matter when it comes to how much detail you go in to?

Jill said that back in 2001, she  told her 5-year-old that "bad men who hated the U.S. crashed planes in to the Twin Towers in NYC." They didn't want her to hear something on the school bus and be upset. Her daughter was satisfied with that answer and never asked another question. Jill said nothing to her 3-year-old. 

Now her kids are 15, 12 and 8.

"I want my children to know what happened in whatever detail they can understand," she said.  

The family went to the Newseum where the kids watched a movie at the exhibit that included the eyewitness news reports from the moment the planes crashed. her 15- and 12-year-old remembered almost nothing but watched respectfully.

Parents with younger children have said that they don't intend to talk about recent events yet -- or at all.

"At three and five years old I see no reason to talk to my children about it... my opinion is that this is the one time in their lives that everything is happy and secure so I don't feel the need to change that just yet."

What do you think?