There are many things in life that your children will need to learn about and the best thing you can do is give them the right tools to help them cope with their experiences. When an individual passes away and the cremation service in Des Moines, IA, is completed, questions could be arising for the child about the loss and what it means. Knowing how to talk to them about this topic in a healthy way is crucial, so let’s look at five helpful tips here.
When Should You Talk to Them About Death?
Depending on the age of the child, this will affect their perception of what death is and younger children like preschoolers and elementary age will likely think death is reversible and the deceased is going to return. older children from late elementary to adolescence will know the deceased is gone but may have questions around what death means and how the death occurred.
Using opportunities through movies, books, or even nature with insects or flowers to help give them examples and build a healthy connection to what death means.
Share Your Understanding of Death
You can also be helpful to talk about your experiences with death to give them an outside perspective. This could be anything from spiritual or religious perspectives or any grief coping skills that you have developed through your experiences with loss.
Don’t Avoid Using the Word Death
You also want to avoid using phrases like passed on, lost, or gone. children have strong imaginations and the words you use can be misinterpreted so avoid using phrases like lost, gone, or passed on and stick with concrete words like death or died or dying.
Show How You Feel
Letting the child know how you’re feeling about the loss is also another integral part of helping the child learn about loss and emotions. So, don’t hide your feelings and it’s encouraged to openly express yourself if you are having sadness or need to cry because this will allow them to do the same thing and develop healthy emotional coping skills for transitions like losses.
Be Prepared for Questions
In most cases, the child is going to have questions about the loss. Whether this is how the individual died or what happens after they die, be prepared to answer concerns or fears the child has around the experience. It can also be helpful to do some research and find age appropriate material because this may give you some typical questions for their age range that can come up so you can be prepared with an answer. And in this situation if you don’t have an answer, it’s better to let them know this honestly but that you will try to find one for them instead of guessing.
Your Locally Trusted Source for Expert Services
Finding ways to normalize death for your child is crucial and if you have recently experienced a loss, cremation service in Des Moines, IA, we are a locally trusted name. We offer exceptional and affordable services for all our clients, so contact us today for more information about our service.
