Monday, May 18, 2009

Loss

This past weekend I found out the Polar Bear Kavek passed away at our local zoo :(
We had just seen him about 2 mo's ago -even then there was a zookeeper note that he was sick and he didn't appear too active. It was still nice to see him curled up and sleeping and see him 1 last time. This reminded me of all our lovely trips to the zoo ever since my daughter was little about 2-3 yrs. old,helping chaperone a field trip with her kindergarten class, and now taking family trips with our son too.
Also this reminded me that unfortunately that is 1 of the hardest parts of parenthood- dealing with grief and loss. Inevitably we'll have to explain about death -Whether it'd be a zoo friend,a beloved family pet, or of course a family member(I know we just passed the 1 yr. anniversary of my FIL's passing). Of course each person has their own way with grief. And it can be tricky to explain to kids -1 thing is to be as honest as possible but not necessarily give too much unnecessary information. The best way to handle it does greatly depend on the age of your kid as explained in this informative article/website.





Sometimes loss can be so poignant though. After somehow taking in 3 stray animals in a matter of mo's -1 of them being a great old;blind orange cat we named Sunny. We had all moved into this house then shortly after found out I was pregnant with my son. I worried how all the pets would be with the new baby. We then later learned Sunny was very ill. When my son was a newborn Sunny got a lot worse-and when my son was about a week old Sunny had to be put down. But, somehow it felt Sunny knew our son was here and it was time for him to go.

2 comments:

Lady Mama said...

That is sad about the polar bear. :( I haven't yet had to deal with loss from a parent's point of view (my kids are too young), and I certainly don't look forward to it.

Crystall said...

I agree! How sad! I have tried to include the reality of death in small comments here and there with my children. We talked a bit about death when our fish died. But most of the discussion about death has been because of my FIL's life-threatening illness. I know they will not fully understand until they are much older; so, hopefully, further explanation can be put off for a few more years at least.