Concepts of trauma have become “a near universal set of theories and practices” (Thompson, 2009) to understand and address suffering. But humans have never neatly fit into universal theories and practices. An outsider to a political violence setting might expect trauma to be first and foremost in the minds of children and families who are experiencing such violence. Yet, my research has shown that children and families have more pressing concerns such as access to and quality of education, poverty, unemployment, deteriorating infrastructure, availability of play spaces. A sole focus on trauma tends to emphasize the negative over the positive, ignoring the sometimes mundane and sometimes joyful experiences in the midst of an “extraordinary” context. While individual stories of victimization and abuse draw attention to human suffering, such discourse often distracts from the wider context of political violence (Marshall, 2009). In this talk, I will discuss how research with children and families in Palestine can eclipse an understanding of their everyday lives where babies are being born, children are attending school, families are eating together and laughing at each other’s jokes, and parents are earning a living to support their children. In Palestine, the experience of trauma is not a sum total, but rather one part of children and their families’ whole life experience. The talk will conclude with recommendations for effective ways of engaging with Palestinian children and families to better understand their everyday experiences.