Girl Terror is obsessive. She gets a thought, or a concept, and she cannot let go. It consumes her for days, until something else comes along to focus on. Dinosaurs lasted for months. Her cousin Ayla, whom she met once a year and a half ago, was a big focus right up until recently. The proposed time-line for her first tooth to fall out can take over her mind for days. Right now, it's all about DEATH. She wants to know "When do people die?" "When will I die?" "Why does stuff die?" "If the flowers die, how come we get more in the summer?" Earlier this week she asked "What is dead like?" And yesterday morning, "When will the polar bears be extinct? Will it be soon? Are they dying now?"
I don't know where the thoughts of death come from. The one-track, totally obsessive mind? That's all from her father.
6 comments:
oh, I remember that questioning stage well! I was visiting a friend last night and her little one was the same way about the movie we were watching. It was Mother Theresa and people died in it, and this little one was quite interested in the whole idea. Cute. But can get old quick, lol.
It's a very natural thing for kids to talk about and or question incessantly about death. Sometimes it can be triggered by "Susie's" hamster dying or even by killing a fish they have caught.
They ask when they are going to die, when you are going to die, what happens, where do you go etc. Given that there is much talk about "remembrance" all over TV, news and themed at schools and daycare, it might have spurred her on.
Sadly, my kids were very young when they had their first experience with death. We took that opportunity to share our faith and beliefs and to calm them about death and to explain that we would all be around for a long time. As they got a wee bit older and expressed concern about when dad and I were going to die, we told them that we were doing everything we could and should to keep our bodies healthy and happy, and we would do our best to live for a very long time. Soon, that fear and line of questioning stopped....until the next death in the family at least. Good luck!
Maybe she'll go into some kind of research and develop a drug that cures something awful. It takes that kind of intellecual tenacity.
Every child seems to go through a questioning-life phase - and often more than once as he/she ages.
It's hard for a parent to cover the "I'm not going to be here forever" part of the conversation. I wish I COULD be there forever for them.
This girl needs an encyclopedia so you have time to cook her dinner.
Eh...I did the death obsession thing when I was about 6. I'm (relatively) normal now. Like you said, she'll play it out and move on to something else!
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