How do you handle questions about mortality?

[jedamum]

Cyborg-breguet, your boy is so cute! :lol:

[darth vader]

My daughter asked if daddy and mommy will go to heaven, like Jesus. No answer to that, but we told her that one is waiting for death since day one, 生老病死 is a natural thing though order may not be so… What we can do is take care of ourselves, accidents do happen so just got to be careful, the rest? We’ll leave it to the higher authority.


It doesn’t matter if she understood then - Because she knows that we’re always in her heart, no matter where we are, watching her and loving her always. She will place her hand over her heart and said yes, she can feel daddy & mommy inside her.

[fo12eal]

I will not avoid this when/if my child ask me this. In fact, when I have the chance to tell her when she is ‘ready’, I will do so. If I failed to tell her that before she is ‘ready’, she will get to read what I have written for her all these while.


生老病死
就是那麼簡單
當我們離開的時候
沒有什麼好遺憾的
因為我們在一起的時候
是快樂的
而那些記憶將是永恆的

[ChiefKiasu]

fo12eal:

... 生老病死

就是那麼簡單
當我們離開的時候
沒有什麼好遺憾的
因為我們在一起的時候
是快樂的
而那些記憶將是永恆的

Wow... I can imagine your child reading it after the fact... even with my half-baked Chinese... I still find it so beautiful...

(yah... jedamum... dunno why so sentimental tonight)

[breguet]

fo12eal:

生老病死
就是那麼簡單
當我們離開的時候
沒有什麼好遺憾的
因為我們在一起的時候
是快樂的
而那些記憶將是永恆的

Wow.

[phantom]

fo12eal:

生老病死
就是那麼簡單
當我們離開的時候
沒有什麼好遺憾的
因為我們在一起的時候
是快樂的
而那些記憶將是永恆的

That's cool.

For me, I talk to my kid about death like just a normal topic, part of life. I don't make it sound exceptional or a taboo to talk about. I usually just correlate to death of plant, insect and animals when we saw it and relate that back to human.

[ChiefKiasu]

Life is so unpredictable. I was just receiving email from Prof Ooi on Monday and then got notice that he was killed on Tuesday by a lorry while walking home from NUS along Clementi road. In less than 24 hours he was gone. It is very sobering and we feel so sorry for his family for their sudden loss. For us that remain, we should re-evaluate our priorities in life as we approach the inevitable. In the end, it is the memories that count.

[2galsmum]

My daughter, now six…ask this question too, a year ago…(maybe i still look young to her, she relates to por por)…


I explained to her that our body aches…but even when we are not around next time, its just that our body already ‘spolit’ and thrown away - burn I mean…but we will still be watching them and blessing them…forever!! Isn’t it?? At least, we wish!

[Luanee]

Whenever my daughter ask me when ppl will die, my generic answer is when they reach 100 yrs old, lol. She is terribly afraid of us dying, and will start crying if we tell her we will all die one day. So I have to reassure her that we are still far from 100 yrs old, so don’t worry so soon. It’s quite heart-breaking when she break down into tears saying "I dont want mummy to die, I dont want daddy to die, I dont want mei-mei to die…" Aarrgh…

[heutistmeintag]

ChiefKiasu:

...In the end, it is the memories that count.

I had a slight twist to this perspective. I told my son that whenever he thinks of us (after we are gone), remember to do the good thing that we did and avoid the bad things that we did. And remember to teach his children that too, so that our family can \"evolve\".