A part of yesterday afternoon was spent saying good-bye to my first charge's grandmother.
Prior to heading out I quickly posed a question on a group about tips for taking a toddler to a funeral. The only response was, "leave her with someone". Well, we do not leave the tot so that was not an option.
Here are my top 5 tips for attending a funeral with a nearly preschool aged child
1. Know your child. If you are in tune with them you will have a good idea if such an idea is likely to be a success or a flop.
2. In advance: it's really handy to already own appropriate attire. Shopping for hours for shoes and a dress is not fun for anyone.
3. Talk about what will be expected. My wording was, "we all need to turn our talking off while the service is on. I will let you know when we can talk again". No threats or bribes. I did say that if we all got too loud we would need to leave the room and I really wanted to be there for our buddies.
4. Bring quiet, easy to dole out snacks. I offered raisins one at a time. Lesson here: bring the snack in a quiet container.
5. Sit close to an escape route. We did not need to use the quick way out but we were prepared in case that would have been necessary.
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