What to Tell Your Children When Bad People Prosper

Photo by Eye for Ebony on Unsplash

We parents have stories we like to tell our children:

Cheaters never prosper.
Honesty is the best policy.
Good prevails.
Love wins.

We talk to our children about the importance of generosity, of selflessness, of compassion.

We instruct them to take the high road, to treat people the way they wish to be treated, to avoid violence, and to speak with kindness.

We look for teachable moments where we can show them the tangible fruit of benevolence, truth, and mercy.

We champion Love or God or Goodness or Karma as the thing that holds it all together, and implore them to seek it.

We give them sweet platitudes and recite them over and over as their nightly twilight, dream world send-off.

This is easy, initially. When they're younger, our children receive these words as gospel; they make sense to them, they feel right, and so they accept them with little hesitation.