Heaven / death explanation for 6 year old

[sandy06]

hi
can anyone help with explaining death and in particular heaven to a 6 year old. He says he keeps getting bad thoughts in his head about not him not existing, then about heaven and it "going on and on". Not sure what he's on about (as often very upset when trying to explain to me) but I'm finding it difficult to reassure, esp as agnostic and not sure myself what I believe (and so I feel I'm lying to him). Even saying "some people believe XYZ" - I think this is complicating things for him. Anyone got any good books to recommend? I've searched some other threads but can't find anything that exactly tackles his fears. thank you

Hi. When my Mam died, the registrar gave me a little book when I went to register my Mam's death.
It's called 'Water Bugs & Dragonflies' and is a story designed to help explain death to children.
Here's the info from the back cover, which may help:
"Water Bugs and Dragonflies is a delightfully sinple way of explaining death to children. By using the analogyof the water bugs' short time under water as our time on earth and their emergence as dragonflies into the bright sunlit world above the water as our life after death, Doris Stickney effectively conveys her belief that life's most basic truths are found in a simple story".

hi thanks so much for your reply - sorry i;ve taken so long to come back to you, been away

My 8 year old has been saying the same thing as your Son for a couple of years now. "what's life about" and "why do we die...what happens when you're dead?" and similar unanswerable questions. I have tried explaining that different people have different views etc. Nothing seems to placate her as she just wants concrete evidence. Although I am an agnostic the only thing that calms her is when I say that we are definitely all going to heaven. If one of dies then we will wait for the others to join us. I feel like I'm selling out but kids seem to need absolute assurance. My suggestion is that if it means misleading your son to make him calm and reassured then do it. Who knew it would be this hard being a Mum?

Well, honesty and answering what's asked I think are good guiding principles I think on all tricky questions. Before you go into the idea of heaven, try to work out what you believe. If you have a sure and certain faith in heaven, tell it as truth. If not, "we don't really know but lots of people believe..." is a good one.