If you or someone in your family has recently been diagnosed with cancer you may be finding it hard deciding if, how, what and when to tell the children.
Children do pick up worry in adults and changes that may be happening in the house.
Only you know your child best. It is important to aim any conversation about cancer at their age range, and level of understanding.
Below are some links and resources that may help you.
Talking to children and teenagers – Macmillan Cancer Support
Talking to Children When a Loved One Has Cancer (cancercare.org)
Talking to children | Coping with cancer | Cancer Research UK
Talking to children | Maggie’s (maggies.org)
Helpful videos and links can be found on the following websites:
Fruitfly Collective – Building new ways to support families affected by cancer
Telling a child when someone is dying
Telling a child someone is dying (mariecurie.org.uk)
Books
As Big As It Gets: Supporting a child when a parent is seriously ill
by Julie Stokes
Brilliant book that outlines how children respond and feel when a parent is sick.
Telling your child you have cancer
by Fruit Fly Collective
Suggestions of ways to start the conversations with children and how important it is. To help prepare it includes a glossary of age appropriate terms and common questions children ask about cancer.
Medikidz Explain Lung Cancer by Kim Chilman-Blair, Shawn DeLoache | Waterstones
