What should I tell my kids if Harry Potter croaks?

[jay santos]

Originally Posted by BigFatMeanie

The current issue of People magazine (via mugglenet.com - one of Mrs. Meanie's Harry Potter websites) has an article about whether or not Harry Potter will die in book 7. What is lame is that they have a guide for parents about what to tell your kids if Harry Potter dies. Some of their snippets of wisdom about how parents should handle this challenging situation:



Are you kidding me? Are folks so devoid of intelligence that they would turn to People magazine for advice on how to handle a fictional characters death? Some thoughts:

• Any child that is so immature or so stupid as to truly worry about or be affected by Harry Potter’s possible death shouldn’t be reading Harry Potter in the first place.
• Any parent that is so immature or so stupid as to turn to People magazine for advice on handling Harry Potter’s possible death shouldn’t be having kids in the first place.

One of the lamest comments in the magazine was “to a kid, Harry Potter is very real”. Oh puhleeze. A kid that is smart enough to read and understand the Harry Potter books doesn’t really think Harry Potter is real. Kids that are too young to understand that Harry Potter isn’t real probably can’t read. Thus, I’ve got to wonder where kids that age are getting such a dose of Harry Potter that they think he’s real?

What’s that you say? They see him in the movies? Well, I suppose that’s possible - my three year old has seen all the Harry Potter movies. If it does indeed turn out the Harry dies, will I let her watch the last movie? The answer to that question is “yes” - because she will be old enough to understand by the time the last moving comes out (probably about 4 years from now). If I happen to have another three year old (unlikely) when the last movie comes out, and Harry happens to croak, will I then let my three year old watch the movie? Hmm, I’m not sure about that. I would watch the movie first and determine whether or not it was suitable for my kid. It’s called parenting. It’s just possible that I would end up letting my three year old watch it because my three year old would likely have more sense than the parents that let People magazine do their parenting for them.

We view things differently. I respect your opinion, but I seem to be on the opposite spectrum on some of these issues. As a parent I actually like having these kind of resources available to help me know how to approach topics with my kids, and I tend to believe that something like death of Harry Potter could be an important thing to talk through with a kid. I like to look for every life lesson possible to have meaningful communication with my kids and this can be one. And even as an adult, I can be disturbed or upset with a death of a loved character if I'm absorbed in a book or film.

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by Archaea

That's awful.

Lest anybody misunderstand, I'm not talking about car-wreck carnage - it was a controlled hospital environment. One thing I learned is that kids can handle death much much better than adults. My parents still aren't fully functional again, some two years later (in fact, it was my late daughter's birthday last Saturday, and I intentionally didn't answer any calls from my mom as she only wanted to make sure we were miserable so she could feel comfortable in her misery; trouble is, my wife and I are just fine, thank you very much).

I'm of a sort that believes that truth is generally preferable to lies when dealing with kids, so we didn't hide anything from her and honestly answered her questions. It was much more difficult for me to tell her and explain to her what was going on than it was for her to process and assimilate the change.

Sorry to get up on a soapbox over kiddie books (I like the books too).

[Jeff Lebowski]

Originally Posted by nikuman

My daughter watched her older sister die. I think she'll be okay if Harry Potter kicks the bucket.

Sorry to hear that.

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by Jeff Lebowski

Sorry to hear that.

No need to be any more. Without getting too sappy, I'll tell you that (oddly enough) the experience was one of the most meaninful and (dare I say it) "best" of my life, in addition to being the hardest. I'm very open about it - far more open than most people prefer, quite frankly.

[bYuPride]

Originally Posted by nikuman

Lest anybody misunderstand, I'm not talking about car-wreck carnage - it was a controlled hospital environment. One thing I learned is that kids can handle death much much better than adults. My parents still aren't fully functional again, some two years later (in fact, it was my late daughter's birthday last Saturday, and I intentionally didn't answer any calls from my mom as she only wanted to make sure we were miserable so she could feel comfortable in her misery; trouble is, my wife and I are just fine, thank you very much).

I'm of a sort that believes that truth is generally preferable to lies when dealing with kids, so we didn't hide anything from her and honestly answered her questions. It was much more difficult for me to tell her and explain to her what was going on than it was for her to process and assimilate the change.

Sorry to get up on a soapbox over kiddie books (I like the books too).

It's interesting to see how different people deal with death. I don't deal well with it at all. I can't tell if the reason I haven't been able to complete get over it is just because "i want to feel sad"? it's bizarre. It's getting better though. time is a great healer.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by nikuman

No need to be any more. Without getting too sappy, I'll tell you that (oddly enough) the experience was one of the most meaninful and (dare I say it) "best" of my life, in addition to being the hardest. I'm very open about it - far more open than most people prefer, quite frankly.

You are dealing with it better than I would. I fear I would be inconsolable for a long time, but that's my own insecurity.

[nikuman]

Originally Posted by Archaea

You are dealing with it better than I would. I fear I would be inconsolable for a long time, but that's my own insecurity.

That's what I thought as well, before the fact. We have a way of finding spiritual power when we need it most, I think, as long as we are plugging along in our own way.

Not to get too preachy.