The Smart Parent’s Guide to Supporting Grieving Children
/ Kids and Teens : Litsa Williams
Eleanor and I have been sitting around sulking because our shoestring budget prevented us from attending the National Alliance for Grieving Children conference this year, which happens to be going on as I type. Grief blogger problems, I know. But we’re legitimately sad, both because we are going to miss a lot of great learning and because we won’t get to see many of our wonderful grief friends from around the country. Though we can’t be at NAGC this week, we can share a post that supports their mission: promoting awareness of the needs of children and teens grieving a death and providing education and resources for anyone who wants to support them. Today we have a round-up of our favorite WYG posts about supporting grieving children, along with links to some of our favorite other websites for supporting children and teens. On your long summer days feel free to use this as a go-to guide for helping the little ones in your life cope with loss. And make sure to check out our print resource, Parenting While Grieving.
Articles About What To Expect
Articles About Talking To Kids
Talking to Kids About Death and Grief: 10 Comprehensive Tips
In Memory Robin Williams: How to Talk With Kids About Suicide
10 Helpful Tips for Talking with Children about the Drug-Related Death of a Loved One
Books For Grieving Kids
Supporting Children After a Suicide Loss: a guide for parents and caregivers
Activities For Grieving Kids
The Evolving Emotions of Grief: an art journal activity for grievers
Supporting Kids Who Can’t Remember Their Dads This Father’s Day
Remembering Ornament: A Holiday Grief Activity for Kids & Teens
Grief Teaching Moments From TV and Movies
Death in Disney Movies: Making the most of teachable movie moments
Inside Out Offers Important Lessons for Grieving Children and Adults
Articles About Taking Care Of Yourself
Though it may shock you to know this, we are not the only spot on the internet that offers some good grief stuff for kids. These are some other great sites you may want to check out:
The Dougy Center: The Dougy Center’s website is home to articles, podcast, and print resources aimed at helping grieving children and teens and those who support them.
Family Lives on Foundation: A national organization that provides a tradition program that helps parentally bereaved children and teens continue traditions shared with deceased parents. They also maintain a blog addressing issues around child bereavement.
Hello Grief: A website developed by Comfort Zone Camp with the aim of starting a discussion about the impact of loss, and how to help grieving person’s cope; as well as building a community of support for those living with grief. Hello Grief has regular posts about grief, opportunities to create memorials, and grief resources.
The Moyer Foundation: The Moyer Foundation created Camp Erin, the largest network of free bereavement camps in the United States for grieving children and teens. They also maintain Camp Mariposa, a camp for children affected by addiction.
The National Alliance for Grieving Children: The National Alliance for Grieving Children’s mission is to promote awareness of the needs of children and teens grieving a death and to provide education and resources for anyone who wants to support them. They maintain a directory of local grief support service providers who serve children, teens and their families and a tool to help you locate specific organizations in your area.
Sesame Street: When Families Grieve: They taught us to count, why shouldn’t they teach us how to deal with grief? We highly recommend these videos and support resources from Sesame Street for younger children. In addition to videos, they have a helpful information page and a very thorough listing of grief camps, counseling services, and support services (although not always listed by location).
We put out helpful posts about grief every week. You should subscribe over on the sidebar and we will send our new posts right to your inbox.
Kathleen June 21, 2017 at 6:49 pm
Thank You for this great comprehensive list. I wish there was some of this information available when I lost my father at 17 in 1972. It might have helped me avoid the pit falls that caught me before I realized nothing I did was going to bring back the love, the comfort or the complete family I lost when the most important man in my life died. Today I will share these articles and lists with the group of parents and grandparents raising children and grandchildren without the benefit of one or both parents that share my grief group. My son left a beautiful daughter who we co parent with her mother. Adding the resourses from this list to what we have will help us help her grow into a healthy, confident woman.