posted on May, 2 2013 @ 02:29 AM
I'm reasonably young still, I'm almost 27, and I'm really lucky to still have both grandparents, and both parents.
I have a son who will be 5 in a couple of months. Recently he has been really hung up on the thought of dying.
It started off that he would say, "When I am 300 years old, I might die!" and I would say, "Wow, if you get to 300 years old, I expect you'll need
a good rest by then!"
Or he would be interested in cause and effect re: death. "Why does that cupboard say 'danger'"? "Well, there might be things in there that could
harm you, there might be electric things, or cleaning products, that if you touched or got in your eyes could hurt you a lot." "Yeah, and if I touch
those electric things, I might die!" or "What might happen if I walk on the train tracks?" "There is electricity in the rails, so you might get
electrocuted, or the train might come along very fast and run you over before you got out the way. So we don't walk on train tracks, because it's
dangerous, ok?"
(His paternal grandfather is in is 70s, and tells him stories of the dangerous things he did as a young boy, which I am really annoyed about. I don't
mind him telling him these things, but he tells him as though it's really funny, and doesn't play up the danger issue. He's already very
encouraging of boisterous behaviour, so I don't want our son getting ideas off him. Whereas my step-dad accidentally helped kill his older brother
when he was a young boy in a game that went wrong and wasn't thought out, and so is very cautionary.)
But this morning, he was a bit sad and a bit subdued, and he sat in bed with me, and he was tearful.
"I don't want to die..."
Well I can't tell him he won't because he will, one day. His Dad said to just redirect his questions, but I don't want to ignore his anxiety.
I told him that we all die, eventually, but hopefully not until we are super old, and we have done lots of fun things in our lives, and made lots of
people happy. I don't feel like it's a good enough answer though. I don't know if he felt comforted by it, or just like he has a countdown about
his head haha.
I would really like some other things I can tell him, which will hopefully reassure him (and me!) for the next time he brings it up.