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How do I explain death of grandparent to 3 year old?

3 replies

KicktheBride · 23/03/2015 21:39

My great-grandmother is 96 and in hospital. She's suddenly become very poorly these past two days and has had the priest come to see her and they don't think she will make it through the night. She lives with my parents and we see her 4 times a week, and my son adores her.

Now, although the past few years we've lost one or two family members, it's never been anyone DS has really knew, more distant family, and he was only a baby, so we've never had to explain how people can die and what happens afterwards and the finality of it all..

Explaining this and telling him he will never see his beloved Mother again is going to be worse than accepting it myself. How do I do it? It's going to break his world into two Sad

Even though she's 96 it's just totally unexpected Sad it was only this last week she got ill, and it started as a cold, and now SadSad

please, any advice appreciated x

OP posts:
KicktheBride · 23/03/2015 21:39

Sorry if I rambled trying to get straight to the point and get any advice?

OP posts:
butterfliesinmytummy · 23/03/2015 21:48

Sorry to hear your great grandmother is ill.

My dd1 was 3 when my Fil died. It's so difficult to explain the permanence of death without scaring children but you might be surprised at how matter of fact and accepting they can be at that age.

My fil was ill so although it was sudden, it wasn't totally unexpected. We explained that we he was old and had been ill for a while (didn't want dd to think that all old people are a breath away from dying or that if she gets a cold, she might die). We explained that his body had failed and we explained about the funeral but that his soul or "personality" I think was still around us and that we could talk to him, she could still tell him about her day. We said that he was with other people who had died (my mum) and that she would take care of him. We still look at pictures and talk about him, dds is 10 now.

It's a tough time without having to explain it to little ones, take it easy x

roseteapot101 · 10/05/2015 21:32

hi i heard of a good storey book to read to a young child about this delicate subject

www.amazon.co.uk/Badgers-Parting-Gifts-Susan-Varley/dp/1849395144/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431289901&sr=8-1&keywords=death+badger+book

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