Pet insurer MORE THAN has teamed up with children’s author and illustrator John Kelly to launch ‘We Won’t Forget our Furry Friend’, a new free-to-download storybook to help children deal with the loss of a family pet. According to new research conducted by MORE THAN, three in ten parents rank talking about the loss of a family pet as one of the top three hardest conversations to have with a child.
Professor Sam Wass, child psychologist and lecturer at the University of East London, said: “For many children, the death of a pet will be the first time they experience loss and grief. How you share these experiences as a family can have a huge impact on how your child will process these emotions. It’s really important that parents have the tools and resources to manage these conversations, to encourage children to express their emotions, and to demonstrate how normal it is to have these feelings. The best way to help a child to come to terms with the loss of a pet is to view it as part of a natural life cycle.”
Navigating grief and loss at any age can be difficult, with a vast majority (86%) of parents seeing the loss of a pet as something to work through together as a family. Many of us find it helpful to remember the life of their pet through rituals including framing a photo (60%), keeping an item which belonged to their departed pet (55%) and planting a tree (47%) in memory.
