How to help your kids deal with the Death of Loved Ones?

It is difficult to deal with the death of a loved one or close kins, especially for children. The intensity of this situation mainly depends upon the age of the kids or the attachment they had with the person who is no more. In such situations, parents as well as other elders of the house need help the kids deal with this grief so that it does not affect their mental or physical health adversely. Below given are some tips which can be followed to handle kids in such circumstances. Read more:

coping-with-death

  • Explain death to the child in understandable terms. Be honest with kids and create an atmosphere of comfort. Try to explain them how death is a natural phenomenon and cannot be avoided but make sure you do this in a child-friendly way.
  • Share your positive spiritual beliefs about death with kids. Give them time to understand it.
  • Do not be too comforting. Help them deal with the emotional turmoil but at the same time, allow them to deal with it independently as this is not only a temporary thing but you are preparing them for such losses in the future as well.
  • Explain them how death is inevitable and that it cannot be avoided.
  • If the kids are too young, try diverting their mind to other things and daily activities which they like to do. If they are too disturbed with this, you can try sending them for some extra-curricular activities so that they have their attention somewhere else.
  • Try keeping kids away from the mourning environment. If possible, send them to a relative’s place or somewhere away from the place where the death has taken place.
  • If the child is not ready to move over the loss, you might require taking him or her for regular counseling sessions with a child psychiatrist. Make sure you understand when this is required and do this on time, because delaying it would cause the child to grieve about it even more.
  • Tell the child how the person who has died wouldn’t like seeing him or her sad. Explain them how such things would keep happening in life and how it should be dealt with. Make sure that you do not get too deep with this and use words and terms which are understandable to the child. Keep such explanations brief and do not keep talking about it all the time.

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