RAISING RESILIENT KIDS

The single hardest thing for me to accept on that fateful night, after being told of his plane crash, was the thoughts that surrounded our kids.

How would they survive without him? How would they ever be whole and happy again? At one and two years old it seemed unfathomable that they would have to grow up in a world without his direction, his love, and his light. To date, the loss of their Dad is still the hardest part of my grief to handle. Parent want to save their children heartache and pain in all ways possible, but I can’t fix this or bring him back.

How would they ever be whole and happy again? At one and two years old it seemed unfathomable that they would have to grow up in a world without his direction, his love, and his light. To date, the loss of their Dad is still the hardest part of my grief to handle. Parent want to save their children heartache and pain in all ways possible, but I can’t fix this or bring him back.

At one and two years old it seemed unfathomable that they would have to grow up in a world without his direction, his love, his smile and his light. To this day, seven plus years later, the loss of their Dad is still the hardest part of my grief to handle. As parents, we want to save our children any heartache or pain but some things are unfixable and some people you just can’t bring back.

What happened to my babies may have been completely unacceptable, cold and cruel but it was our reality, and even if I didn’t want to face it, I quickly learned I didn’t have much of a choice. I was going to have to face my new reality, and in the process, I was about to get a first-hand lesson in living beyond loss for not only myself but the two little lives entrusted to me.

Sadly, my kids are not alone in their grief, and I’ve learned that loss comes in many forms for our babies, often too young. 1 in 5 American children experiences the loss of someone close to them by the age of 18, and 1 in 7 children lose a parent or a sibling before they are 20. Additionally, 68% of kids are now living in non-traditional homes.

Our kids are asked to live through deeply emotional and stressful experiences so how do we help them grow, evolve, get stronger and thrive after the unthinkable? How do we teach them to be resilient?

Keep them in structured environment

Give them community

Teach them to give back

Keep them physically active

Shower them with love

Allow them to grieve in their way

Seek out alternative forms of therapy

Teach them self-care and love

Talk to them about what was lost

Teach them to ask for help

Teach them mindfulness