Young Explorers Fund

...Enabling children to explore feelings about any diagnosis, loss or bereavement...

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Something bad could be several things as we all cope and deal with things differently; maybe a diagnosis of an illness, an emotional issues like depression resulting in admission into hospital, a divorce or something like a sudden bereavement.

Whatever the case when you have children, everyone is affected even if we think that the children are not old enough to know or even understand.

 

Having children adds another pressure or demand on you as you are in a slightly different category than those who have no children. In the midst of our own feelings, cultures and beliefs parents also have to know automatically what the right way is for the children, when many may even feel that the automatic answer is to protect their children and say nothing at all. We do not always know what the right thing to do is…why should we if we have not ever been in that situation before?

What i learned though was how children sense when something is not right and so often imagine what is happening which may in fact be far worse than the truth, how they need age appropriate explanations that of course only the parents can be a judge of but how they also need to be given choices about how they can be involved.

I remembered back to when i was about 8… I clearly remember losing my grand-dad and how i was desperate to attend the funeral but, how my parents decided that it was not appropriate and so i was not allowed to go. I had already kept my own son away from the next funeral of my grand-dad so the evidence is there even in my own family home that without that knowledge and reflection I too thought I was protecting my son from an experience he needed not be a part of.

And so this is another reason for the beginning of “Understanding Differences” ...

Young Explorers continued

Any diagnosis or loss affects the whole family which includes children of any age.

Even if we have not told the children what is happening, they sense that something is not right and begin to use their imaginations to guess what could be wrong.

We support the ethos of being open and as honest with children as is age appropriate and The Young Explorers Fund aims to offer the tools to help explain and include children, giving opportunity to understand and explore their feelings.

We entirely recognise that supporting children can be tough when you have your own feelings of loss too. Our goal is to develop regular Young Explorers Workshops for families in Crawley and the surrounding areas to benefit from adult and child peer support while they may be waiting for other services to work with them on an individual basis.