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Through the death of little Lola, children can be confronted with violent information, and ask themselves questions about death. But how to broach this difficult subject with them? Brut interviewed Thierry Baubet, psychiatrist.
“Do you have any questions? Do you have any fears?“Children can be confronted with the subject of death through the news, especially at this time with the murder of little Lola. Until a certain age, some do not have the same understanding of what death is, compared to an adult. But even for the oldest among them, it can cause anxiety and fear. So how do you talk about it with them? Thierry Baubet, psychiatrist, answers Brut’s questions.
First of all, according to the psychiatrist, it is necessary to leave the freedom to the children to speak or not about this subject. “There are children who will take up this proposal to talk about it. There can be a lot of scary things following such an event. There are children who may have been exposed to horrible content, and then they may have questions, because they may have heard things that are obviously untrue or things that are true and very disturbing. So we open this door and maybe the child won’t grab it right away, maybe he’ll say ‘no, no, it’s fine, it’s fine, I don’t have don’t want’, and then come back three days later. What counts is having opened the door and demonstrating that you are there for the child, to discuss it with him.”
For him, you should not be impassive in the face of events either. “Parents should not be in a position where they pretend that all of this has no bearing on them. On the contrary, sharing with your children and saying that it’s normal to be sad and to be a little angry, or to be unwell after such an event, is part of the discussion. It’s not about presenting yourself as completely invulnerable”, adds Thierry Baubet.