Children are often the overlooked mourners. These young grievers unfortunately may never get their greatest emotional and spiritual needs met in dealing with their devastating loss. Why does this happen?

In the family, adults are dealing with their own grief. They don’t know what to do for themselves, much less what to do for hurting, grieving children.  To complicate the situation further, grieving children in a family or community are often pushed aside, chastised, punished and suddenly marked as “problem children” because they act out in protest to their loss.  The adults around them don’t understand that the child in grief is angry, upset, and scared….and the only coping skill they know to employ is protest, acting out and seeking attention in any way possible.  These are not problem children, but children with a problem.  They need the adults around them to provide comfort, encouragement and most importantly security.  Grieving…