At what age did your kids understand that people don't live forever?
My preschooler doesn't understand the concept of death at all. We've talked about how flowers and other plants die to make way for other plants, but when I tried to tell her recently that our ageing pet won't be around forever, she took it to mean that he'll eventually move to another house and I left it at that. When were your kids old enough to have this conversation?
11 votes
3 answers
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02/20/2019This is a good question. My four-year old has hit the existential question stage pretty hard core. Her: What happens at the end of the days? Me: At the end of the day, we go to bed. Her: No. What happens at the end of ALL the days? Me: Oh, I see. Hmmm. ;)
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02/25/2019You really can’t beat 4-year-olds for helping you realize how much you don’t know - or at least, can’t explain coherently! Thankfully, my kids seem to lose interest after a few seconds of me stumbling through a response, so I don’t usually have to finish my incoherent explanations!!
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02/06/2019Oh this is so sad to think about! My daughter is way too young to explain this to her yet, but I know it will be a hard conversation, especially since we have two senior dogs!
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02/25/2019I don't think I really got it until my pet died in second grade, even though I went to a funeral in kindergarten and technically knew what is was. My 3.5 yo currently has no idea, even at a basic level. I definitely don't want to rush her knowing, but I've been surprised by how often in comes up through movies and TV shows. Even Daniel Tiger has an episode where his fish dies that caught me off guard.
