Helping your Kids Grieve What COVID-19 Has Taken From Them
Virus, pandemic, and social isolation can all be very scary and stressful notions for kids that can be high as the country experiences a regular death toll. As a parent or caregiver, you need to learn not just the ways of discussing the COVID-19 pandemic but also you may find yourself in a difficult condition of clarifying loss. Grief is a natural and normal response to a specific loss of any type.
1. Help Your Kids Handle Their Feelings
Even if people are under normal situations, death brings many feelings like anger, fear, longing, and sadness. The experience is not painful but an experience that is difficult to deal with. Kids basically need their loved ones’ support as every kid’s response to death may differ. There is no specific way that a kid is meant to encounter his/her grief.
The experience of sorrow at the departure of a loved one is painful; hence, it is important to know how to manage the sadness. Though people want to safeguard their kids from this pain, it is not possible to do. It is not recommended as well; after all, experiencing such emotions is also required for kids when a loved one dies.
Emotions like anger incorporating at a person who died or at the parents can be more difficult to validate but are no less crucial. These feelings are parts of normal grief responses and being a parent, you need to make your kids learn how to accept them.
2. Describing Death to Your Kid
To help your kid accept the departure of a loved one, provide him/her the important facts regarding the death and its circumstances. Give your kids a chance to ask questions. The target is to give them complete insight into what actually happened so that your kids can start to accept death and its consequences.
Young kids may require some details about what death implies. Although there is no right word to explain it, it is equally important to convey that it’s a permanent condition and nobody can come back from it. Discuss everything about the departure of a person if only they want to listen to you.
3. Help Your Kids Move Forward
During the COVID-19 pandemic, kids may worry about what may happen to them or their surviving loved ones. Being a caregiver, you must reassure them whenever possible regarding the precautions that are being taken for keeping all safe and protected. Give positive experiences, enjoyment, and fun to support them in moving forward. Just let them know that life is meant to continue even if someone leaves us.