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Supporting your child as they learn their peer died is very difficult emotionally for a child and a parent.

A parent does best when they work through their own reactions before they tell their child.

A reflective parent who has sorted out their emotions is in the best position to offer comfort to a child.

Timmy, 9 years old, came home from school very upset. A schoolmate had told him that their friend’s brother had been in a car accident and had been killed. Jeanine, Timmy’s mom, tried to comfort her son, but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, as he ran up to his room and closed the door.

Unfortunately, this scenario is one many parents will have to contend with during their child’s growing-up years. Your child may lose a classmate or a friend from a scout troop may have lost a sibling or a parent of a friend has died. Helping children through whatever they are experiencing—whether it is a close heartfelt loss or a sense of sympathy for a friend or a memory of an earlier personal loss—is a tough task for any parent. It can set your mind reeling. There is no script writer telling you what to say or how to say it.

How to begin to help?

Help begins with conversation. The overarching principle in providing your child with help in this kind of situation is to remember that this is not a one-time conversation. You are creating an opportunity for the two of you to begin a series of conversations and you will both have many opportunities to go over this new, unfamiliar, and........

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