When a parent loses a child, their grief will be considerable. Losing a child is one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. It is a parent’s foremost concern to keep their child healthy and happy, and in losing them to mortality, a parent naturally feels that they have failed at the most important thing in their lives. Every moment of a person’s life when they have children is devoted to the well-being of their child, and when their child is gone, the emptiness that consumes the bereaved parent is unspeakable.

It is everyone’s desire, including the grieving parent’s, to take away the grief that losing a child causes. It is a constant heavy emotion that commands the grieving parent’s daily thoughts and behaviors. However, trying to extinguish the pain a grieving parents is going through can be very harmful. It may seem counter-intuitive to allow pain, but that is exactly what a parent grieving the death of their child needs. Their grief is a natural response to the circumstance they are going through and must be allowed to run its course.

The natural progression of grief for a parent who loses a child is shock, denial, acceptance, emotional release and healing. When the parent first learns, typically they will go into shock. The news is too traumatic for the mind to comprehend, so the mind protects the individual by shutting down. This relates closely to the next phase, denial. In denial, the parent will be making attempts to reason their way out of their child’s death. Their mind will be functioning again, but under the false pretense that they can bring their child back. As soon as the parent finally accepts that their child is gone, an incredible flood of emotion will come over the person. If they grieve correctly, emotion will be their reality for some time. But this emotional release will also lead to healing. As time passes, the emotions will become manageable and the healing will become stronger.