Your son is in the exact same position as so many young adults today. As a professor who loves talking to her students-a large majority of whom are 20 to 25-I know just how much COVID has taken away from their ability to connect with people. So, there have to be other young adults in your area who are also looking to widen their social circles.
"Yeah... Imma hold your hand when I say this." "Sleep when the baby crochets." "Showering is gonna feel like your special hobby." "I drove through chick fil once on maternity leave." "You won't have time to brush ur teeth, drink water, eat, use the restroom, nor to sleep." "I had so much planned out but ended up doing nothing but caring for the baby, just pick some shows and get comfortable girlfriend." "Girl. You will be figuring out wake windows and trying to get your baby to nap longer than 24 minutes until about 6m postpartum." "Yall had time for hobbies???"
How you handle the conversation is less about age and more about what you know of your child and how likely they are to be impacted by the events, Deborah Gilboa, a family doctor and resilience expert, tells TODAY.com. Of course, these discussions depend on whether or not parents know for certain that their child has been exposed to graphic content.
"Take your kids to the elementary school this weekend, pack them all up with their book bag, their lunchbox, cute little back-to-school outfit, their new shoes - all the works - and go take a tripod to that elementary school, junior high, high school ... and go take the back-to-school pictures on the weekends."
You can be proactive about this and you can make a plan for de-escalation if your prophylactic measures fail. Mother and daughter being close is a wonderful thing. Being 'prone to fighting' is not.