Figlia, who among other things has no trouble walking from the living room to our bedroom in our non-big flat, or using the loo alone, has suddenly started acting jumpy, and scared. She needs to hear, or sense the presence of a living adult to do these kind of things.
When adults (MIL plus the Nanny plus the Cleaning Lady) talk all the highfalutin about "Sigh, the house is so empty, lonely, does not feel like a house anymore, and the spirit is always with us, the body is gone, and he is looking down upon us, and he is here but we cannot see him", and there is an impressionable six year old listening to the reel playing on loop, well...
Now I am gently feeding to Figlia that spirit is not a ghost, and that FIL was benevolent to her in person, and will never be anything else as a soul. And that there are no ghosts in the house.
Grrr - that is not helpful talk from the "adults." Maybe it would be helpful to talk with Figlia about how what they're feeling is a loss rather than a presence. And they talk about a presence because they don't want to deal with the loss.
ReplyDeleteOr you can spin it as a guardian angel type thing - where your FIL watches over her and looks out for her now. Not sure how that works in with your belief system. But it's kind of funny - the kids will take what they want from the discussions they have with other people and find their own definitions and concepts of the afterlife.