The whole dying lark.

I keep putting this post off, saving it as draft and forget about it.

At 6 years of age, you should have no worries or concerns. You should always have on rose tinted glasses and believe in fairy tales and magic. I believe its our duty as parents to protect our children from all the bad in the world.
But at some point in their lives someone they're close to will die. Admittedly not their fault but still a sucky thing to do to a little person. As adults, we understand (but still not like the fact) that the world sucks sometimes and its not all peachy all of the time, but for a 6 year old this is extremely difficult to comprehend. They have millions of questions you cant possibly begin to answer, usually starting with why?
As parents we are pretty helpless all we can really do is to soften the blow, comfort and reassure them.

For those of you that follow me on twitter (if you don't then why not?! :)
You can here if you so wish @Oneofeachkind) my granddad sadly passed away last week, while it wasn't a total shock as he was very ill, he became very ill very quickly, so it knocked us all sideways a bit. I'm one of those people that bury my head in the sand and push things to the back of my mind, until I have to face it head on. This usually happens at the funeral.  

I thought long and hard about whether my daughter should attend the funeral, she was very close to my Granddad and she has found it hard to understand that he isn't with us anymore. For me, funeral's are a place to say goodbye and where it all becomes that little bit more real. However she is still only 6, is a funeral really the best place for her to be?!

I have decided against it as I don't want her to see people she is close to hurting I think its too much for a little person to understand.

Please share you thoughts on whether you think children should attend funerals and what age you were when you went to your first one, how did you feel and did you benefit from it? Thanks all.