Explaining about death of certain artists, delicate matter

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  • November 12, 2011 at 5:50 am
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    I remember a post a while back titled something like, “not sure if I handled this correctly”. It was a post by a CM mom about reading a book about an artist who had killed himself. Could anyone help me find it? Could you post that link?

    I think I need to discuss this delicate matter with my ds7. At a yard sale this afternoon, I inquired of the young man where some old books came from and he told me they belonged to his step dad’s second cousin who had killed himself. My ds7 was standing there listening, too. The young man felt badly and appologized afterwards, but my son wanted to know more. He asked how exactly that his relative died. I said that some people have mental illness, but I’m not sure that ds7 knows what “mental illness” means. So do I ignore it for now until it comes up again, or should I address this with him now?

    There were some suggestions on how to handle discussing this with kids on that thread about the artists deaths, but if you have any more suggestions, please share.

    November 12, 2011 at 3:47 pm
    Sue
    Participant

    I think the thread you’re looking for is this one.  It talks about the artist Van Gogh and how to appropriately discuss the fact that he committed suicide.

    For what it’s worth, I have had to discuss my nephew’s suicide (before they were born) with my children, and I started by talking about how we are to love others as we love ourselves. I told them that God loves each of us more than anyone else in the world does, and He always will, even if we aren’t being good people. We should always love ourselves and take care of ourselves. I told them that some people feel so bad about themselves that they either are not listening to God’s voice (saying “I love you”) or they are believing other voices (Satan, the world, their own personal thoughts) that are telling them they are unlovable. They start to feel so badly about themselves (hate themselves) that they just want to destroy the “bad thing”–themselves. I wrapped things up by telling them that’s why it is so important to pray and read God’s Word, so they will keep hearing God say “I love you,” and to ask others to pray for us if we don’t feel so good about ourselves.

    HTH,

    Sue

    November 12, 2011 at 5:25 pm
    Wings2fly
    Participant

    Thanks Sue.

    November 14, 2011 at 11:48 am
    jeaninpa
    Participant

    We have had to deal with this issue as well.  One of the great benefits of homeschooling is that because you are with your children all day, the things that are on their minds usually get brought up at some point so that you can discuss them.  That being the case, I would wait until your child asks about it again and not be the one to bring it up.  It seems to me that children will ask again when they are ready.

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