Losing a loved one is extremely difficult for everyone in the family and we asked Allen O’Donoghue, from Help me to parent, to give us some advice on dealing with bereavement as a family. We lost 2 family members recently and it was devastating for our children and us, the parents. We found this advice has been helpful for us, so we wanted to share:
1) to take care of yourself and look at what is going on for you as a parent;
2) try not to hide your own grief from your children, seeing you be upset or know that you are upset, may give them “permission” to grieve themselves;
3) try not to force them to talk or worry if they don’t show emotion, sometimes they need to just try and process things for themselves;
4) just listen to them, if they come to you upset, let them experience their emotions and reassure them that it is absolutely okay to feel how they feel;
5) if you have a child who generally doesn’t want to show emotion, let them know that it is okay to cry and be upset, but that they don’t have to do it in front of anyone;
6) you could get a notebook to let them write how they were feeling if they need to;
7) get professional support if they really need it.
For more advice, please contact Allen at:
