Monday, April 12, 2010
When Families Grieve: A Sesame Street Special
Some of you may recall the Sesame Street episode that featured the monsters reactions to the Death of Mr. Hooper from several years ago. It had a profound impact on many children and parents helped by the fact it was aired on Thanksgiving Day. The creators behind Sesame Street have decided to revisit the topic in a nighttime special called "When Families Grieve." The episode airs Wednesday night on PBS stations (check local listings).
Interestingly this has nothing to do with the upcoming 'National Healthcare Decisions Day' on Friday April 16th (right after taxes...well you know what they say about death and taxes.) This special episode emerged from the Talk. Listen Connect. program tailored towards military families dealing with repeated and prolonged deployments. The program is supported by New York Life insurance who interestingly also provided a lot of seed money to Comfort Zone Camp, which was featured at the recent AAHPM meeting.
I am reminded of a quote from the Comfort Zone Camp video: "I thought I was the only kid who had a parent who had died." This episode may help a lot of kids realize they are not alone.
I am reminded of a quote from the Comfort Zone Camp video: "I thought I was the only kid who had a parent who had died." This episode may help a lot of kids realize they are not alone.
In conjunction with the special episode they are distributing nearly 1 million multimedia kits to families and will have online resources as well. As with the Mr. Hooper episode, I am guessing they will approach this in a secular way and focus on memories of the deceased and they will likely teach adults a lot about death and grieving as well.
I have it DVR'd and will post a review after it airs. If anyone has any comments while they are watching it please feel free to use this post as a conversation hub.
I have included a few videos below to give you a hint of what the episode will feature.
An preview of a clip from the show:
An preview of a clip from the show:
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4 Responses to “When Families Grieve: A Sesame Street Special”
April 13, 2010
I have 2 children aged 16 and 12. Their father just died of colorectal cancer. The suggestion of letter writing definitely helped my children. They each wrote a private letter to their daddy that he had with him in his coffin when he was cremated. I said to them that no-one except them and their dad would ever see it and so they could write what was in their hearts, everything they had ever wanted to tell him. That seemed to help them and they both wanted to do it.
April 13, 2010
A buddy of mine from grade school helped produce this program. I can't wait to see it. Glad you mentioned it.
April 14, 2010
As a side comment, according to Myra Christopher of the Center for Practical Bioethics, the connection between death and taxes (April 15 and National Healthcare Decisions Day on April 16) was entirely intentional.
April 19, 2010
Thanks for posting these clips; it's important to realize that grief can hit everyone differently, especially smaller children who may not fully understand death or their feelings about it. We've found some great resources that help in dealing with grief, some of which you can find online: http://bit.ly/a7Aawp It's especially important to help children work through their feelings during these hard times.
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