IN between ferrying the children to football practice, struggling with maths homework and dishing up tea over the past few weeks I, like countless parents, have had to deal with the occasional huge and terrifying question.

Why are we doing this, Mum? Will people be killed? How will it end? Coming up with some answers is one thing. Getting to grips with the fear and insecurity that lies behind the questions is the really difficult bit.

The toughest, and most persistent, one came from my gun-toting four-year-old. "Can I go to the war mum? Can I? Can I?" In a moment of weakness, to keep him quiet, I told him that of course he could go, just thankful he's not 14 years older.

"Don't be so daft, you'd be killed," said his older brother, making me feel ashamed for being so glib. He told me they'd prayed at school for Iraqi children that day.

It's not something that is constantly on their minds. But it pops into their heads at odd moments. Like in the middle of the Simpsons: "What if they attack the American base near us? Will we be safe?" Over the past few weeks they have seen enough on the news to worry about chemical weapons and terrorist attacks. And now the war has come into our living room.

While constant TV coverage can reveal the true horror of conflict, such vivid, dramatic reports, sandwiched between programmes like Grange Hill and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are in danger of being viewed by children as entertainment.

Live pictures of bombs lighting up the Baghdad sky, reporters in combat gear as shots fire over their heads and tanks racing across the desert - it could almost be an action movie, a computer game, or a reality game show. At times, I have to remind the children this is real. When we watch buildings explode, real people are probably being killed or injured.

One night, just after Coronation Street, we watched a seven-year-old who had been badly burned, screaming in his hospital bed. He was not expected to last the day. My own seven-year-old wanted to know why he had been hurt.

In their short lives, my sons have looked to me to explain away far too many conflicts and atrocities. The delicate balancing act of providing the information they want, along with the reassurance they need, gets more and more difficult.

I wonder what mothers in Baghdad are telling their children.

SCHOOLCHILDREN have been criticised for bunking off classes to protest about the war. We should be proud of them. They feel passionately about war, peace and justice. And as issues go, this is about as big as it gets. While I am not anti-war, I would be happy for my children to miss one day of school because they care so much about what is happening in Iraq. Better that than to grow up ignorant, self-centred and apathetic. Sadly, many adults are not setting a great example. Callers to Radio Four's Moneybox programme were asking how war would affect their investments, while the leader of the Confederation of British Industry urged British businesses to exploit French unpopularity and sell into the American market for all they're worth. Let our youngsters protest. They have to live in the future we are creating for them.