You know that you need cremation services Willowick, OH. But do you know you’re going to announce the death the small children in the family? Death is a notoriously difficult subject to broach with little kids. If they’re very young, they don’t even know what death means.

You have to tread carefully. There’s going to be an instinct to try to palliate or make the event seem less terrible than it really is. Try to avoid this. It will only lead to greater confusion later on. It’s important to be perfectly clear from the beginning. The deceased is never going to come back.

Although you need to be frank and firm, you also need to use the right language. Using terms that the child doesn’t understand will only frighten them and lead to more confusion later on. Say simply “the person is dead.” That’s better than using terms like “passed away” or “moved on.”

Be prepared for the child to exhibit confusing emotions. It’s wouldn’t be unusual for a child to not react to the news at all and simply go back to playing. It also wouldn’t be strange if the child became distraught and needed to be comforted. Because children don’t really understand death, you can’t put much stock into their reactions.

There’s no minimum age to have this conversation. If the child is old enough to understand words and someone in their circle dies, they should be told what happened. Don’t minimize anything.

The conversation should be held in a neutral, non-threatening environment. Otherwise, the child might feel nervous. The closer the child was to the deceased, the more care that you’re going to have to use break the news. If the deceased was the child’s parent, for example, the news might be devastating.

Death is unavoidable, even for children. It’s an ugly part of the world that you wish you could shield them from but it’s impossible. If their brush with death comes early in life, it’s just something that you’ll have to deal with. Life isn’t always ideal.

The conversation won’t be easy but after you get it over with you’ll know what to do next. Depending on your child’s reactions, you can plan what needs to happen next. It could be that therapy is the right option for your family. It could be that your child will need to have more personal conversations with you for them to truly grasp the concept.

Even though you’re dealing with your own grief at the same time, you’ll have to try to hide it out. There’s no other way to move forward. If you seem destroyed, your child will be affected as well.

When you need cremation services Willowick, OH, it’s time to plan a visit to Orlando-Donsante-Previte Funeral Home. We’re located at 29550 Euclid Ave, Wickliffe, OH, 44092. If you have any questions that can be answered by our staff, please call us at (440) 943-2466. We would love to put your mind at ease.