Help children deal with a seriously or terminally ill parent
Emotions: Children with a seriously or terminally ill parent may feel a lot of anxiety and fear.
A sense of responsibility: Older children and teens may also feel responsibility for the parent’s illness, and even an increased.
Isolation: Sometimes children will withdraw and isolate themselves from family member and.
Denial: Some kids refuse to believe that their parent is seriously ill.
Act like they're younger: Children may regress, meaning that they do things the way they did when they were younger.
Different understandings: Children at different ages have different understandings of serious illnesses and death.
Change in behavior: Children may also have trouble leaving the ill parent to go to school, have temper tantrums.
Refuse to listen: Some kids may refuse to listen to an explanation of what’s going on, or even pretend nothing is wrong.
Breaking rules: Some display their sadness and anger by refusing to go along with the family rules.
Possible reactions: And with different understandings comes different types of reactions.