My husband’s father died this week. He was 92 and had been in decline from cancer and dementia for some time. It was a good death for all of those reasons. It was also a good death because he was ready, and surrounded by family when he died. 

But we’re still sad. We’re still grieving. We will miss him.

I’m taking this opportunity to revisit the topic of death and dying this week because - even though we’d mostly prefer to avoid it -- death is a part of life. And it’s a part of life that kids need to know about.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you sit them down and have some kind of “death talk”. But what I am suggesting is getting yourself comfortable with the topic and how kids of different ages might respond to death.

My own kids were pretty young when my own father passed away. 

At that time, my husband and I really struggled with:

Whether to bring the kids to the funeral. (We did.)

Whether to bring the kids into a room of grieving adults. (We did.)

How to explain his death to the kids. (Factually, by answering the questions that they asked.)

We were so fortunate to have my friend, Martha, to talk to. 

I’m hoping you’ll take some time to watch, or re-watch this interview that I recorded with Martha this past year. 

There’s also an accompanying PDF with resources if you want that for download.