Talking to preschooler about the Queen

[Lightseverywhere]

I'm hoping for some advice on how to talk to my 3 year old about the Queen's death. Around the time of the Jubilee they did loads of activities at nursery about her, and developed a bit of a love for her, pointing her out on TV, talking about her etc! We've not had a close death in the family so we've not had to tackle this topic yet, but with the King's speech on yesterday, I was asked a few times "when will the Queen be here"...!

Any tips?

I would maybe just say that Queen got tired of ruling, and she has to rest now, so there will be a King from now on? I'm not sure if there's a need of talking about a death of a complete stranger to a 3 year old (would be different if it was a family member I suppose).

Factual and age appropriate is the way to go around death. So along the lines of “the queen was very very old and her body was tired and stopped working”.

I just said the queens died to my 4 year old and that we now have a king. She just went oh ok! I don't think it needs to be made flowery or into anything big. Death is part of life.

I'd use a Star Wars metaphor, like Luke and Obi-Wan, her Majesty used her Jedi powers to enter the afterlife to perpetuate the constitutional monarchy's unobserved crown powers to the next generation of hereditary Saxe-Coburgs.

It worked for my six year old, who's happier now, and off lithium.

:( sad face

NB Any younger than that and I just say she choked on a swan.

Just say she died. Then answer any questions from there in a factual and age appropriate way.

My DC also learnt all about the Queen at nursery during the Jubilee, they told them yesterday she'd died. He wasn't remotely bothered.

Yep we've always been very upfront about death. DD is 3.5 and knows that the queen has died and we now have a king.

We lost our cat last year so had that discussion then, that he had got old and poorly and had died, which meant he wouldn't be around any more but we would always remember him. She talks about him from time to time.

Avoid euphemisms or anything like 'going to sleep'.

Just say she died. There's no point trying to make it something else, it's quite simple, she was very old and died.

Exactly. Far better for your DC to learn about death via the Queen than a close family member.