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Letter: It’s foolish to underestimate how much your children know about heavy topics

I can appreciate parents being concerned about the heavier topics their children are exposed to during their lives, but to guardians who feel the Colorado Healthy Kid Survey crossed a line, I have to ask — what exactly do you think your kids do and talk about in their free time? If you think it’s all innocent toddler talk, you have another thing coming.

Children have more access to the world than any generation before them, and pretending like they aren’t discussing its realities is foolish and willfully blind. Attitudes like this only prove to your children that you either don’t trust them with more mature knowledge, that you can’t be trusted to maintain your composure and answer honestly if they did choose to ask, or that you don’t know enough about these topics to be worth asking in the first place. Stop pretending like 11, 12 and 13-year-olds are ignorant to subjects like drugs, sex and self-harm. They certainly aren’t, and underestimating them is not protection; it’s a handicap. If parents aren’t willing to have hard conversations with their children, they should at least make sure there is another avenue for their children to seek relevant knowledge.

This anonymous survey also covers topics like physical activity and nutrition. But does anyone these days really think that health stops at these more archaic markers? Lastly, from what I know, parents received numerous emails alerting them to this upcoming survey and the ability to opt-out. From where I’m sitting, it’s rather hypocritical to get angry at teachers and administration when you can barely be bothered to pay attention to district emails that alert you to upcoming activities like this.



Jenna Meier Bilbo

Idaho Springs




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