Preparing Your Children For Goodbye is a supportive
guidebook for parents who are terminally ill. This book
is divided into three parts: • End-of-life issues to
consider • How children cope with death • A Life Review
workbook The book will help you plan for your own
end-of-life care, prepare your children for your death,
and record memories of your life. The book includes a
Bibliography and a list of “Places to Turn To for Help”.
Your most important role as a parent is raising your
child. All along, you are attempting to impart into them
your values, as well as teach them the skills that they
will need to be successful as they grow into adulthood.
No parent expects to leave a child to journey through
life without his or her direct guidance. As that day
approaches, and you begin to accept that you will not
have the time that you thought you would, the pressure
mounts to prepare your child for the future. The process
of looking back over your life and thinking about what
has mattered most to you is a natural part of facing
death. There is a formal discipline called “Life Review”
in which people are encouraged to discuss and write down
aspects of their past. This Life Review workbook is
specifically designed for use by parents of children and
teenagers. It includes questions to help you consider
issues relating to your children, as well as more
general questions that will trigger memories about other
parts of your life. This Life Review process can be used
by anyone who is interested in thinking about their own
past, even if they do not have children. You can use the
workbook on your own or with someone else. It’s a nice
activity for two people to do together using a
conversational approach. An adult child could use the
conversational method with an elderly parent. It can be
an enjoyable way to reminisce about the past and capture
memories. This type of conversational approach can be
helpful as a tool to use with older people who are
having memory problems. The workbook can be used in
hospice settings by hospice volunteers to use with
patients who want to reflect on their lives. If someone
is too sick to take on a major writing project, the
volunteer can ask questions from the workbook to help
the person recall anything that they want to have
remembered. A volunteer could also work with family
members to explain life review ideas and introduce the
workbook as something they can use on their own. Any
parent who wants to record family history can also use
this book. Perhaps you have a high-risk profession in an
area such as law enforcement, firefighting, or serve in
the military and are concerned about the future. Who
hasn’t thought, “What if?”
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