Two Preschoolers and a Funeral

Kids and Funerals. I had no idea it was such a controversial subject. Probably because I grew up with a no nonsense kind of mother who never put a sugar coating on anything in her life, that took me to my first funeral when I was about two years old. So to me, funerals and death are just a part of life. Today, I was thankful for that. Why should we shelter our kids so much? Is it a secret that people die? I am not a "replace the goldfish" kind of mother and I am hoping that someday my kids will appreciate my honesty.

I hadn't thought much about taking them to a funeral. Thankfully, because no one in our family had passed away in quite some time. But, last night when I was getting ready to go to the funeral home for the visitation (my Uncle Ken died) my kids asked why they couldn't go. The reality is that they COULD have gone, I just didn't want to take them. They told me they wouldn't be scared to go because they play video games all the time and see movies where people die and that doesn't scare them. It was somewhere between the video games and the zombies that I decided they should go to the funeral.

My Uncle Ken was a Marine and a Sheriff for over 30 years and if you have ever been to a funeral for anyone in law enforcement or military then you know what a big to do it is. I thought it would be great for my kids to see this and know how much respect everyone had for their Uncle, as well as see that when a real person dies, there is real sadness and no reset button. This is a message I am happy to say they got today. If you ask them about it now Dublin will tell you about the 21 gun salute, how we were allowed to run red lights and all of the police cars, and Talia will tell you about the white bird her cousin released at the cemetery and how sad everyone was. They were well behaved and polite. I was super proud of them. They typically get in fist fights every few hours so this was quite a feat for them.( I won't lie, during the service I gave them lollipops so they their mouths would be too busy to talk )

This is a photo of my Grandfather (left) and my Uncle Ken last Christmas.