Your Cancer Guide
Talking With Your Children About Dying
Prepare to be open with children when cancer treatment has stopped working.
By Hester Hill Schnipper
By Hester Hill Schnipper
Parents want to love and protect their children, and they expect to do so by living long enough to raise them to adulthood. Cancer can interfere with this expectation when treatments are no longer effective. If this happens to you, it will be painfully necessary to prepare your children for life without you
2) Consider whether it makes sense to talk together as a family or to speak separately to each child, with or without other loved ones present.
3) Begin with a direct statement: “We need to talk about my cancer and what is happening to me.”
There are no easy ways to discuss your death, but here are nine suggestions to help guide the process:
1) Choose an appropriate time to talk to your children when no one is overtired and you have enough private time. Remember, this will likely be the first of many conversations.2) Consider whether it makes sense to talk together as a family or to speak separately to each child, with or without other loved ones present.
3) Begin with a direct statement: “We need to talk about my cancer and what is happening to me.”
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