I have 18 month old twins. They’re not old enough to explain things too, but I ponder this type of thing a lot.

Basically my plan is multi-faceted, but I’ll acknowledge up front that it’s untested and likely contain grave errors, but like any parent since the dawn of time I’ll try to learn from my errors and adjust my strategy.

I’m not going to dumb anything down. If you’re old enough to wonder where babies come from then you’re old enough to understand that males produce sperm and women produce an egg and the two combine to produce a baby. That doesn’t mean a 4 year old needs to learn about STDs or abortion or rape, just that there’s no harm nor shame in learning.

It’s going to take a lot of time. Not to explain things, but to maintain a relationship where my kids feel comfortable asking me about awkward things. Not “why is the sky blue” but “why do I feel this way” or what ever.

Also, I plan to be honest and frank about the limitations of my knowledge. This is something that as an adult I find frustrating about my own childhood. My parents did their best within their means and societal norms, but whenever they didn’t know something they just made it up usually within some kind of religious framework. If I know part of the answer then I’ll acknowledge that I don’t have the whole answer and suggest how we might learn more.

To answer your actual question though, I don’t think one really explains terrorism on any given day. Like you could explain that terrorism is the use of fear for a political or ideological objective, but that’s not really an understanding is it. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to understand people’s motivation for this type of hatred and I hope my children do too.