Question of the day: At what age should you let children attend a non-family member funeral?
My youngest daughter goes to a private Catholic school. This past weekend the school secretary lost her husband. Her son also works at the school as our Coach and Health teacher. Being that we are a very small school, only about 300 kids for Pre-K through 8th grade, they will be letting the older kids attend to funeral mass. The older kids being from 4th – 8th graders, which means my daughter will be attending. I have no problem with her attending the mass but that is because she has already attended a funeral before.
What’s your opinion?
The Eyes In The Back Of My Head 
Joy
/ March 4, 2009I feel that death is a part of life and should be taught. I was shielded from death a lot. Also, my grandparents lived a long time so I never really experienced death until I was an adult and it was hard. On the other hand, my mother in law and my grandparents died when my boys were younger and they were right there with us and I think it’s helped them to handle it as adults.
I think if you are close to a person, it’s a good way to teach your kids how to say good bye.
Doraz
/ March 4, 2009I agree with what Joy said. I was also sheltered from attending funerals, as a child. Then, it turned out the first funeral I went to was my dads, that was a shock. I believe the parents are the best judge as to whether they think their child should attend. It is part of the educational responsibility of a parent to teach about death, in my opinion.
Just a Mom
/ March 5, 2009I voluntereed at the school today during the time of the funeral so that the teachers could attend. They decided to let the kids in 4th-8th grade decide for themselves if they wanted to attend the funeral even if their parents said it was alright for them to attend. A lot of the kids were very relieved that they did not have to go.
I was in charge of watching the kids in 4th-8th grade who did not attend. We stayed back and watched the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in the library. There were about 30 kids that were there. Surprisingly, we all made it out alive!