Should you tell kids about death and suicide? There has been a lot of talk since Mark Speight the childrens presenter killed himself, about telling kids about death. I apreciate that when someone dies of old age, or heart attack they need to be told the truth, but should Kids be protected from being told about suicide? A part of me says "yes" if someone who is known by children dies because of drugs, then they need to be told and then told, "see drugs are stupid, and can kill you" but if the person known tot he kids commit suicide because of depression, do they need to know? And should kids be spared from the details of the death? Example my son was watching the news when they announced the Mark Speight had been found hangning, and he came to me and asked why he had killed himself, i tried to explain because he was sad and was upset about Natasha his girlfriend dieing, and he said, well he was sad, why didnt he cheer up? I didnt have an answer to that i so i decided to tell him, "you'll know when your older" which has always been a lame reason for mums to get out of explaining somthing to they're kids. so do kids need to know about death, suicide, and death by drugs? your thoughts!!
I don't ever remember a time when my kids haven't known about death. The first time they ever heard the word suicide and asked, I just told them that's its when someone kills themselves on purpose. Its always been easy to talk about.
Only if they asked, which my kids always do. I make a point of telling them if it was drugs or drunk driving.
Being as honest and open about any questions will only bring your family closer together. When you start trying to hide things is when trouble will start.
They know about death, since they were alive when their grandma died. They started asking more questions about it and I answered them. We haven't talked that much about suicide but they know it is when someone takes their own life. I think that came up because something came up on the news one day. I don't think I would have made a point of it and sat them down to talk about it, if they hadn't asked.
death is a fact of life, why would you shelter them from it? do you really want your kids growing up thinking that they are guaranteed to live to 76 and they need to plan their lives precisely around this, or would you rather they acknowledge that death is everywhere and just enjoy the moment.
LA what age are you talking about? At about 5 kids understand a fair amount and if a parent comited suicide then they need to understand SOMETHING about the incident at 10 they will understand everything about it So just like everything else the mental age of the child matters in this, there isnt much point telling a 6month old baby about death but you couldnt hide it from a 16 year old (exstreem examples i know)
Shelter children from death? How do you do that? Death is all around us and there is nothing more upsetting than telling your kid that their father died because he was sick when he really killed himself. It tends to make your kids not trust you and I guess they have a valid reason.
