This is what E asked at bedtime the other night and it threw both my hubby and I. We both knew the time would come when we would have to explain… but we weren’t quite prepared for it whilst we were tucking E into bed.

Hubby explained that heaven was a place you went to when you die and that usually you go there when you are very old, but that sometimes… you can go to heaven sooner if you are really poorly or if you have an accident. He then went onto explain that this is why we always tell E to be careful and not to do certain things that can result in him hurting himself as it would mean that he could end up in hospital or in some cases heaven. If he went to heaven then he wouldn’t be able to see mummy or daddy for a very long time.

We’re not quite sure what was playing on his mind yesterday but we tried to assure him that heaven was nothing to worry about and that mummy and daddy or anyone else he knew for that matter would not be going to heaven for a long long time…

I know no doubt he will have more questions for us in the future and we will have to properly sit him down and answer them.  We also will need to tell him in a bit more detail that this is where his Uncle Mark (hubby’s brother) has gone.

I’m still unsure on the use of “god” though – we are not a religious family but he has been to a church based activity group in the Easter holidays where he did learn a bit about him. I guess if we are going down the road of explaining what heaven it may be inevitable that we talk about god too?

Have you had experience of this before with your children? How did you approach the subject and were you very clear in your mind how you explained it all?

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