Life

I think it's important to tell children about the continuity of life. We live in a stratified society. Little children are kept together. Adolescents are kept together. Young marrieds are together. And if you remain single people ask you, why? Old people, for goodness sakes, are kept together. I was lucky as a child, because our house was always full of people, grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, new born babies. I could tell you different stories about that all in the same house! And I learned early that life is a continual process and not stratified. I saw old people and I knew that someday I will be old too. I saw people dying and I began to appreciate life. But when you don't see it you don't know that it's there, and you're scared to death of it. Most of us are horrified about death. We don't know how to die or live with dignity. If you have lived with dignity, you'll die with dignity. You don't have to worry about it. As long as you have life you can live right through death. But children have to have some knowledge of this. They have to see it. We hide them from funerals, we don't let them see bodies. We don't give them answers when they say "What happened to my dog?" "What happened to grandma?" "She went away on a trip". Little kids are going to learn what you teach them. They pick up attitude of their parents. If their parents are scared to death, so are they.And that's no pun intended. Then another thing that is essential is that children learn that they have a choice. They will only believe that they have choice if you give them alternatives in their lives.