How do you explain death to a 3 year old?
Since finding this question on a forum I’m still baffled how to answer this. How do you tell a 3 year old child, a child who was just 3 years and nine months ago a cell, about death? How could you make them understand death without scarring them for life? Anything I could tell that impressionable mind may subtly influence him or her for the rest of their life.
I could go the safe ( and politically correct ) route that everyone goes to heaven, but I don’t even believe in heaven so it would not make sense for me to say that. I could tell the kid nothing happens after you die, but I refuse to inflict my beliefs on a highly impressionable child.
I can only answer this truthfully in the way most familiar to me. though I don’t completely know what will happen after death, I can only explain what happens to the body after death. Thus, this is what I would say:
“Death is when the body stops working. The brain ceases to function and your heartbeat stops. Therefore, you are no long unable to experience all 5 of your senses. You’re no longer able to see, touch, taste, smell or hear. You’re no longer able to think, breathe, speak, or move. The world around you dims to black. You lose consciousness and awareness forever. In other words, you die. After your body ceases to function, your body begins to decay. Your body will decay until your atoms scatter and your skeleton is left behind . The atoms of your body will merge with nature. Some of your atoms will eventually merge with another living being. So in a sense you will exist forever, but you will probably not experience it.”
I know this seems quite harsh and I know this will make you want to steal my eggs so I’m unable to have kids, but I’m aiming to be as straightforward as possible. I hate euphemisms.
on second thought, please steal my ovaries. I’m too harsh to have a child.
