Telling children about death is important, yet uncomfortable. We want to protect them from sadness, but prepare them for life. Children’s ability to understand concepts like time, permanence, the persistence of unseen objects, and universality develops over the years, so what we say will be received and processed differently depending on the age of the child. Despite being aware of this in theory, I have been taken by surprise on occasions by the reinterpretation of our conversations by one or other of the children.
