Introduction

Before you can counsel parents on how to talk to their children about what’s happening, it’s important to understand what the situation looks like to a child. How do they view being sick? Do they understand the difference between having a cold and having cancer? What do they think happens when someone dies? A lot of factors affect their understanding of illness and death, and each child will react differently to their mom’s cancer journey. Parents know their children best, but it may be hard to know how much information a child can handle. By figuring out what they understand, you can let the child take the lead as to how much information they want.