One thing that we all need – and especially a grieving child – is connections with supportive people. How do you connect with your child? This may be easier or harder at different ages and stages throughout your child’s life.
One way that we recommend staying connected to your grieving child is to engage in activities that you enjoy together. Do you both enjoy going on bike rides, watching movies, playing games, coloring together, baking, or walking the dog? Try to schedule time with your child each week to do these activities. Make it a point to ask some intentional questions during these times if your child seems open to it.
Do you have a hard time thinking of any activities that you both really enjoy? Sometimes that is the case at certain points during your child’s life or if your child has really limited interests, and that’s okay! We recommend continuing to stay open-minded and seeing if your child will let you join them in some of the things they are doing. Even if this means playing a video game that you wouldn’t normally choose to play or tossing a ball if you’re not athletically inclined, you may find that you enjoy the activity more than you thought you would. And we bet your child will at least appreciate that you tried to enter their world!