Parenting After the Death of a Child

The death of a child has a tremendous and overwhelming impact on parents and siblings, completely altering the psychological landscape of the family. In the aftermath of such a tragedy, parents face the challenge of not only dealing with their own grief, but also that of their surviving children. How can someone attempt to cease parenting a deceased child while maintaining this role with his/her other children? Is it possible for a mother or father to effectively deal with feelings of grief and loss while simultaneously helping their surviving children? Parenting After the Death of a Child: A Practitioner's Guide addresses this complex and daunting dilemma. Following on the heels of a qualitative research study that involved interviewing bereaved parents, both fathers and mothers, Buckle and Fleming have put together several different stories of loss and recovery to create an invaluable resource for clinicians, students, and grieving parents. The authors present the experience of losing a child and its subsequent impact on a family in a novel and effective way, demonstrating the strength and importance of their book for the counseling field.

Jennifer L. Buckle, Stephen J. Fleming

Setting the Stage: Impact of the Death of a Child on Parents. Discovering the Theory of Bereaved Parenting: Method, Participants, Overview of Results. Part I: Devastation. The Devastation of Parental Bereavement. Part II: Regeneration. Picking Up the Pieces: Regeneration of Self. Picking Up the Pieces: Regeneration of Family. Part III: Parenting. Dual Tasks of Parenting and Grieving. Control. Parenting Bereaved Children. Implications and Future Directions.