Steven Waldman

Steven Waldman

Helping Your Child Deal with the Death of a Pet

posted by swaldman | 2:36pm Thursday March 5, 2009

doggies.jpgSome tips for parents trying to help a child through the loss of a pet.
Most interesting: don’t use euphemisms like “God took Buffy to heaven.” Experts Allen and Linda Anderson say “these ways of describing death can be confusing to children and can cause them to fear going to sleep or getting sick, to fear or feel angry toward God, or to believe the pet will come back someday.”
One meta point: treat it like it’s a big deal. Don’t make the child feel like its silly to grieve because its just a pet.
What advice to you have?



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Pat

posted March 6, 2009 at 12:51 pm


I don’t know if it helps children, but I’ve found that it helps adults to remind then that they made the pet happy while she was with them. ‘She purred every day’ or something appropriate to the deceased species.



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