Play-Learn-Grow-Repeat

From Monday Mom – Neetika:
Unfortunately, we had a death in the family a few days ago. My uncle had been in poor health for a very long time, but of course it was still sad to process the loss. I knew I’d have to tread carefully in discussing it with Haley. She’d been asking a lot of questions about death lately—for no reason other than she’s simply getting to that age. Now, here was someone she actually knew, gone, so I was nervous to see how she would handle it. I also figure she’s old enough that she might always remember this event, so I wanted to discuss it in a way that wouldn’t scare her.

Haley seemed to handle everything really well. She asked a lot of insightful questions—some were actually funny—and we answered as best we could, in age-appropriate ways according to our belief system. I’m not sure we did the best job; we made heaven sound pretty cool (and that’s where Great-Grandma is!) so she seems somewhat eager to go there. Not exactly what we were going for!

I know Haley will have more questions as she gets older and has a better understanding of the nature of the world. Whether the answers we give are right or wrong, I hope we always convey that she can ask us anything.