How did you tell your kids the fish is dead?

Posted by Sarah on June 24, 2009

After I wrote Do you tell your kids the fish is dead, a couple of people have found the site searching for “How do you tell your kids the fish is dead,” so I thought I should address that question.

How do you tell your kids the fish is dead?

Does the explanation differ according to the child’s age – or whether or not they are the ones who discovered the body.

I have to tell you, in our tank full of cories and bushynose plecos sometimes all we find is part of a skeleton, and then we have to determine which fish is dead by figuring out which one we don’t see anymore.

I think that might be a little more traumatic than seeing a fish that has just died.

I really haven’t thought about what or how I’m going to tell the baby when she’s old enough to start wondering what happened to the fish.

It’s something we’ll definitely have to think about though – with all of our fish now deaths and disappearances are going to be a part of life.

Of course there’s the chance she might not care or notice missing fish at all, but if she’s anything like her dad and me she’ll have at least one favorite.

How did you tell your kids the fish is dead?

Do you remember how your parents told you your fish had died when you were younger?