People across the country will gather on Saturday, March 24, for March For Our Lives, demanding that lawmakers take action to increase school safety and decrease gun violence. Boston’s march begins at 11 a.m. at Madison Park High School (75 Malcolm X Blvd.) and continues at a 2 p.m. rally at Boston Common. We asked parents if they plan to attend and take their children—and what they’ve told them about the weekend’s events.

“I’m going, but without my kids (5 and 7) and without giving them any details about it. I want them to know about and appreciate civic engagement, but I’m still sheltering them entirely from the thought of people killing each other, guns, et cetera. I did the same for the first women’s march, partially because I was worried about the crowds and safety and partially because I knew signs would have salty language and topics, which I didn’t want to discuss. But I showed them all the TV and online coverage and had a big discussion about why it was important to be involved and what it meant. I brought them to the second women’s march, which was less crowded.”

“I’m going to the march but I have not told our kids about the march. They are 7, 4 and 1. In my opinion, they are too young to understand the issue of gun control, and I worry that without the ability to rationalize the ‘odds,’ they would become needlessly fearful of something happening to them or in their school. I share other issues of social justice or civic responsibility with them, but not this one.”

“I have a child in first grade and a child entering kindergarten, and I have not spoken to them about the shootings or gun control. I have boys who think that guns are cool, and no matter how much you try to explain to them the seriousness of it, it’s not getting through right now. If my child were older and wanted to make this decision on their own, I would really have to think about it. I know this may sound paranoid. But who’s to say that some crazy person wouldn’t come up on these walkouts? You just never know these days, and I’m not sure if I’d want my child to take the risk, whether I accompanied them or not. This is a tough one. And this is kind of my stance on all walkouts and marches. There’s just too much of a sitting-duck scenario going on right now. I just don’t trust anyone anymore.”

“I had a hard time deciding, but I came to the conclusion that if they’re old enough for active shooter drills (entering kindergarten in the fall), they’re old enough to go. I took them to the school walkouts so we could talk about what’s going on little by little. I kept it pretty simple.”

“My daughter is 15, so there is not much shielding her from anything. She knows how to Google. Another child is 9 and has special needs, so the conversation will be affected by that. But in general, I don’t like withholding information, even when it may be scary.”

“I’ve been telling my kids that the march and walkouts are about gun control, and we have a lot of talks about what that means. They overheard something on NPR about school shootings, and asked if that could happen at their school. I didn’t say no, but I talked about how our state’s gun control laws are better than in most states, but that there’s still a lot of work to be done to make sure the whole country is safer from gun violence. My sons are 4 and 6, and so far only the 6-year-old has been asking these questions. My 6-year-old is now aware that other people’s homes may have guns in them, although we’ve talked about why I don’t believe guns should be in the home. I think it’s important that he’s not completely unaware of the damage that a gun can do. I wonder if I shouldn’t listen to NPR with the kids in the car, even though it has sparked a lot of important discussions.”

“We are planning to go with our 4.5-year-old (entering kindergarten in the fall), and 21-month-old. We’ve taken them to last year’s women’s march, this year’s women’s march and last year’s science march. We’ve always kept it kind of vague on what the marches are for, though, and the eldest can’t quite read the signs yet. She did make her own sign for the science march, a giant heart colored in, so somehow I think she gets what we’re all marching for in the end.”

“About a year ago a very wise man said to me, ‘Let kids be kids.’ They will have plenty of years to worry about politics, wars, fears, et cetera. I am now very conscious to keep things super high-level in our house. They are aware that there are terrible things going on out there in the world, that people are suffering, that our politics are polarizing, but I won’t take a deep dive with them until at least middle school.”

“I am going to the march. I have two girls, 3 and 7. I’m not bringing either. The 7-year-old would understand, but at this point, I haven’t had the heart to tell her. We’ve had 11 mass shootings in March, and it’s only two-thirds over. She has done the drills at her elementary school, described as ‘what you do when an unwanted person comes in,’ but the discussion of people murdering as many people as they can with guns is a conversation I’m putting off. I’m in tears just contemplating it. At some point, it’s a parent’s responsibility to teach our children that people kill people with powerful, awful weapons and the government thinks that’s OK, even if we don’t. At least when I have that conversation, I’ll be able to answer the question, ‘Dad, what did you do about it?'”