Coping With Guilt Following The Death Of A Child

Outliving children can cause many parents to suffer from survivor's guilt.

This can stem from helplessness in the situation that took their child - whether it was an accident, illness or suicide. When a parent has nurtured and protected their child, even to adulthood, to have no control over a situation can be traumatic and leave them taking on board a measure of blame, wondering what they could have done to avoid the devastating outcome.

Sometimes we punish ourselves further as we rue and regret times past. We may experience self-doubt about our parenting skills as we recall navigating difficult situations from the early, exhausting learning curves of parenthood to handling argumentative young adults.

This is very normal, but the fact is, life is unpredictable and unfair.

It's important to be kind to ourselves and to realise we did the best we could at the time with the information we had and that circumstances allowed.