What to Read When My Kiddo is Angry
Sometimes when our kids are angry, reading books with characters that they can relate to can be helpful. I am constantly asked what my favorite books are for different feelings, so I thought I would share some for anger! Anger is not a bad thing. It is important to let our kids know that there […]
Back to School: A Guardian’s Guide to Helping a Grieving Child
As I discussed in my last blog post, my dad died on the fourth day of fourth grade. I took days four through nine off from school and Monday I was expected to go back. “What? My dad just died. I’m not leaving my mom for 7 hours a day to just go to school. […]
4th Day of Fourth Grade
In August 2000, I went back to school on August 4th. It was a Thursday and my dad had been in the hospital for almost 10 months straight. At this point, he had suffered from two heart attacks and multiple organs had started to fail. My mom and I were guessing his time left on […]
Grief Monsters
When working with bereaved kids, and sometimes adults, I always end up talking about grief monsters. These are ugly looking creatures that live in our bodies that take over when our grief feelings become too big. Each of us has one and none of them look the same. Some people’s monsters are red or black. […]
The Hard Weeks
Have you ever noticed that some weeks are just hard? There seem to be days that come out of left field and are full of frustration, anger, and overwhelming sadness. Even if you’re going about your normal routine that the minutes feel like hours and hours feel like days. Sometimes we have no idea where […]