ok ok please don't get me wrong. The thing here is that experiencing those things are important, yes, and they are valuable to the character of those who have experienced them personally-- we're making a distinction between reading the paper and sitting in at death watch/witnessing war-- but as a parent I still would find it my responsibility to protect my child from it.

It's not that my son should not understand and witness that. It's a selfish instinct, understand, to say "I grew up in the shitter of Earth, and I fought my way and sacrificed my childhood to get out of warzone X, so I could marry a lovely woman and raise my beautiful boy in a safe and clean suburb in NJ."

The last thing 'I' want is to let my son see a loved one die at 12 years old like 'I' did back in warzone x. Even if it makes him a strong and mature man.

edit: That said. I will not be so ignorant as to stop my kid from finding any resources and information on his own. If he wants to read the NYTimes, I'll buy him the paper and get a subscription of the Economist too, have talks with him about current events and politics the way I wish my dad did.

Never would I dare stop my kid from chasing his curiosity until it gets so far he learns the sense to distinguish his own boundaries. If he's in high school and decides he wants to enlist in the army or the navy or go back to Armenia and serve the draft, I wouldn't hold him back because if he goes and fucks up that failure is a lesson for him to learn on his own. But I will not willingly expose him to death without his complete and full understanding of what it is and how he is/is not prepared to handle it. That's on me when he's 12. Not him.