Death

It is a strange time at home. My four year old is asking a lot about death. It is hard to know how to answer his questions. And though we haven't exactly been letting him watch the news coverage of VA Tech, death is everywhere around us. Only the most whitewashed cartoons do not depict injury or death, and those are hard to come by at times.

Without strong religious beliefs, it is a struggle to answer questions. It takes a lot of mental agility. I have just resorted to telling him that most people live into their 80s (given the current life expectancy in the US) and that that is a long time to live. Since one of his schoolmate's parents died from cancer I have also explained that some people die when they get really sick or are badly hurt. He wants to find a way to keep both mom and dad and the cat and himself alive forever. I just explain that we are trying our best to keep him from getting sick or hurt and teaching him how to keep himself from getting sick or hurt. With regard to dying, I haven't said too much except that living a good life is important and then getting old or sick or hurt is not as bad.

As far as I can tell he just thinks people go away when they die. Since I haven't found the truth to be much different I haven't elaborated on that.