Talking to children about death

[rossrocks88]

How does everyone deal with talking to their children about death. I don't have any yet, but I think about this. It's easy to resort to the loving guy in the sky and angels and all that but how do you deal with it more realistically?

[Pyrrho]

I recommend that you read a few articles at links that pop up near the top of an internet search for "talking with children about death" (without the quotation marks).

For example:

http://www.webmd.com/palliative-care/tal...bout_death

http://www.hospicenet.org/html/talking.html

http://kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/fe...death.html

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice.../death.htm

[vorlon13]

I was raised on a farm.  We had pets die, farm animals died, crops would die in a drought or hail.  When my grandfather passed away I was 9 years old, I went to the funeral.  I put it all together without, apparently, getting much verbal input from the grownups around me. (as far as I recall)

The big 'clincher' for me inre to the atheism angle would have been someone pointing out the nature of my consciousness and existence in the year 1,000,000 BC is going to be identical to my experience in the year 1,000,000 AD.

[KUSA]

Everything that lives also dies. Everything that is living depends on things that died. It's the circle of life.

If you want to show a child an example of death just explain where the hotdog he or she is eating came from.

[BrokenQuill92]

http://youtu.be/rAKoa9cm0-U

[rossrocks88]

http://youtu.be/rAKoa9cm0-U

Hah[emoji106] [emoji23] [emoji23] [emoji23]

[abaris]

I don't have any children, but I remember very well how I was introduced to the concept of death. It was at the height of the Vietnam war when even the European news were full of casualty lists and the news reader went on and on about numbers of deads. So I kept asking my parents and still being not much more than a very small child, they were evasive. Which made me even more curious and mystified the concept.

Today I think, my parent's approach wasn't the best.

[TubbyTubby]

Although I'm comfortable with the nothing after death premise and accept it as the logical conclusion rather than supernatural/life after death stories, I do find myself feeling uncomfortable talking about it with my kids as I'm sure most atheist parents do. I am however, very comfortable with the fact that these difficult conversations now are, by many magnitudes, better for them as they mature rather than picking a religious based eternal life scenario to comfort them.

At 7,8,9 or 10 years old it's quite a bitter pill to swallow. My 12 yo son appears to take it quite matter of fact though so who knows what goes on in young minds.

[The Inquisition]

I think it's best to address it as a matter of acceptance. Death is simply a part of life, an important part, it gives people motivation to do something positive while they still live and not put it off.

It's hard to combat the pretty lies of religion when they can make stuff up and tell people that they can live forever in a happy place after they die.

[The Grand Nudger]

"Daddy, where did orange cat go""

-To the quarry,  sweetheart, same place as the truck that hit him.