A distress lecture...

Today's lecture was about DEATH AND DYING: SUPPORTING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES.
What's the first thing you think about when you read this?
As an early childhood professional, I have a variety of topics and issues to learn about in order to work and support the children and families well.
Honestly, it was a very good and valuable lecture... However, it is always very distress when it comes to this kind of topic...
The lecture included the grieving process, how children at different ages react with the death, how different may the boys and girls react, some risk and protective factors that help children in coping the death...
I was quite surprise with the different reactions that children may have towards the death...
Like what we always thought...babies may be too young to understand the loss of someone...Actually, they do! Not understand as in death is blah blah blah but they sense of the absence of that person... Lets say, if a baby lost one of his parents, he could actually feel or see the absence of the parent. It may causing disruption in his sleeping and eating patterns.

The early age children react differently. We may still say that they do not have the same feelings as we do. They may think that death is just sleeping and assume that the dead person will come back one day. They will also think that the dead person will continue doing something like eating, sleeping or toileting. Like my lecturer said, she had one child who lost her grandma asked her "it's going to rain, will the rain wet grandma?"... Some children also may think that heaven is just another city that we can go! Again, a child told her mum "Can we drive to visit grandpa in the heaven?"...

School age children begin to understand that death is permanent that the dead person will never return and that death is universal and inevitable which happens everywhere, every second and to everyone.

I found it very distress cause I feel the same way... Although I'm a grown-up, I can still find myself in some of the categories described throughout the lecture... I wonder how am I going to support a child and family when I can't even control my own feelings... I know it's so much better to comfort and support a child who lost his/ her loved one when you experienced this yourself... Still...

I used to think that adults have no feelings...they don't cry easily...I was wrong. I'm as an adult now, I can finally understand it's not that the adults do not have feelings or cold-blooded... They are just learnt to hide their sadness and cotrol their feelings... Absolutely...Myself, don't usually tell people about my feelings... I have my own way to release my sadness secretly...

I still have so much to learn... Maybe it's the time to pick them up and really think of how to become a really professional early childhood teacher or a real grown-up...
I don't know how much have I taken away from this lecture... All I've learnt was that Life can't be permanent, our lives even plants or animals' lives will fade away one day... We can't change anything when someone has passed... The most important thing is that the live ones carry on with their lives... Earth will never stop rotating without anyone... And do appreciate and cherish every seconds with your loved ones... Don't ever leave any regrets...