My son was super close to his pawpaw. Last year my grandfather's health declined greatly. My son could see something was going on, but did not quite understand it. On my daughters first birthday, we took the kids out to a fun center. While we were there I got the dreaded phone call. my grandfather had died and my son was crushed. He kept asking me why God took him, before he could say goodbye. So my wife ran to the store and got some helium balloons. We cut out hearts and all of us wrote messages to my grandfather on them. Then, we tied the hearts to a balloon, went outside and released them. My son felt better after that. What are some other good ways to console a small child? This is always such a hard subject to go about, when it comes to children. Especially since you can not answer most of their questions.
Young Child and Grandparents Death
- Thread starter Clay
- Start date
encryptedbytes
New Member
That's super cute and a great way to help bring some closure for young ones who can't really grasp the concept of death., Great idea, Dad!
Ours isn't a religious household, so I've taken a different tack. I explain that people's bodies are kind of like machines, and just like machines, sometimes we break. This is one of the reasons we get sick sometimes - something is broken. It can be a big thing like a bone or even a tiny little thing like germs getting into parts they don't belong in. Fortunately, we have smart people like doctors that know how to fix a lot of the things that can break in out bodies, but unfortunately they cannot fix everything and sometimes we break, or even just wear out, in a way that a doctor can't fix. When this happens out bodies won't work any more and our time to live is over. Some people only live a little time before they break too much, but most people people live a long, long time before they break too much. The best thing we can do is to take good care of our bodies and hope to live a long, long time like grampa did!
Ours isn't a religious household, so I've taken a different tack. I explain that people's bodies are kind of like machines, and just like machines, sometimes we break. This is one of the reasons we get sick sometimes - something is broken. It can be a big thing like a bone or even a tiny little thing like germs getting into parts they don't belong in. Fortunately, we have smart people like doctors that know how to fix a lot of the things that can break in out bodies, but unfortunately they cannot fix everything and sometimes we break, or even just wear out, in a way that a doctor can't fix. When this happens out bodies won't work any more and our time to live is over. Some people only live a little time before they break too much, but most people people live a long, long time before they break too much. The best thing we can do is to take good care of our bodies and hope to live a long, long time like grampa did!
Victor Leigh
New Member
In the community where I brought up my children, taking the children to funerals is a common thing. So death is not a mystery to them at all. Anyway when my father died, my children were all adults already so they took it in their stride anyhow.
I agree with the approach. My grandson and I talk about death sometimes, and I always treat it as a positive thing. We are both church-going Christians, and meeting in Heaven is a reality for us. We also talk about our deceased relatives as though they are still members of our family, which they are.
That is amazing! I remember when my grandmother passed and I was about six or seven at the time, I never really understood either. My parents sent me over to a neighbors house for the day of the funeral and I spent the night there as well. In the middle of the night I got up and decided that I knew what death was and I understand that she was no longer there, but my place was "home". My gram lived with us up until the day she passed.