6 year old struggling with death

[goodgrief54]

Hi. My normally bright and breezy 6 yo dd seems to really struggle with the concept of death (as we all do! ) and gets v upset that she has never seen my dad who died the day after ds was born 8 years ago. my sister in law died about 3 years ago and left 2 dd and since then quite understandably my dd has had issues about my mortality too and gets very wound up at the thought of losing me.

I just struggle as when she gets upset she says she wants to die so she can be with them and sometimes threatens to kill herself. I also struggle as she uses this a lot when she is told off. I give her as much reassurance as I can but sometimes worry this is not enough.

Anyone been through anything similar? Anyone know of any good books that help explain death for children? Thanks in advance for any tips.

[LastingLight]

My dd has also lost some important people in her life. We got her this book: www.amazon.co.uk/Always-Forever-Alan-Durant/dp/0552548774?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

[goodgrief54]

Thank you. I have ordered the book.

[BrianTheMole]

Waterbugs and dragonflies is a good book. here

[LoveBeingCantThinkOfAName]

Oh dear that must be very hard to hear. I struggled to explain death to my dc, my 5 yr old has recently starting saying dead to just about anything, one of the flowers in her picture is usually dead, if someone falls on the floor on tv they are dead. Think its just them trying to make sense of it.

We have a local charity that deals with helping children deal with death, maybe see if there one near you that can help?