Challenging Topics

Helping Your Children


Philosophy offers ways to talk with our children about their more challenging questions and the issues that trouble them. Although in many circumstances it is helpful to tell a child, “It will all be okay,” it’s also essential to help our children to learn how to face and manage problems themselves.

Young people often have questions, feelings, and thoughts about topics such as loneliness and isolation, boredom, death and loss, and other difficult issues. What tools can we give them to help them address these issues and decide how best to manage their feelings and uncertainties?  

It can be useful for children to be able to talk about their questions and feelings about more difficult aspects of life without the adults in their lives always feeling as if they have to provide an answer. The goal of these conversations  is not necessarily to find that one right answer, but to be able to think through the issue together, finding common ground and better understanding.

Discussing with young people their thoughts and ideas about these kinds of topics can help them to feel better about their own experiences and to think more carefully about the choices they have. Ultimately, we want children to become reflective and healthy adults. Thinking with them about topics like these will help them get there!

We hope that the following resources – children’s books and short videos – help you to have conversations about these issues.

TOPICS (click below to view the resources for that topic)

Fear and Anxiety

Loneliness and Isolation

Boredom

Illness and Death