It is common for parents to feel worried about how any other children will be affected by their sibling very sadly dying.
💔How do you tell them?
💔What do you say when they ask what is wrong?
You may be feeling worried, anxious or concerned about the difficult task of discussing and explaining that their brother or sister has died or is not going to survive.
This can be especially difficult to find the words when you don’t have a reason for how or why it happened yourself.
Children can be very black and white, very to the point and very matter of fact in their understanding, questioning and how they verbalise their thoughts.
Using books and resources to aid these discussions can be very helpful. Helpful for you to have a tactile resource to hold, read and discuss and helpful for the children because it is visual, the pictures can prompt questions and a healthy discussion.
We are so excited to have received these in the post today funded by funds from the sale of our Easter Activity Packs. These will be available in our library alongside resources that can be borrowed by families.
We know that it can feel like a minefield trying to think of ways to explain the death of a sibling to children and this can feel very daunting for parents who are also dealing with their own grief at the loss of their baby.
It is very common to feel unsure about how to approach telling them, what do you say? and how much do you tell them?
As their parents we naturally want to want protect them, guard them and keep them safe emotionally and physically. This can feel especially worrying when children are very young, might have additional needs or may struggle to understand the concept of death and dying.
The way that we choose to communicate with our children about what has happened will take some thoughtful questioning as you prepare yourself. It is vital for them to understand and to grieve in a healthy way that they see and hear how we are feeling, even when we don’t want to or we don’t intend to. This will help children to understand and process.
Do you have any questions about how to support siblings?
Maybe you would like to share how you told your children what had happened?
Please pop them in the comments below or message us privately.
Love OWF💗💙
