Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of motherhood with chronic illness is helping your children understand what is going on with your body and encouraging acceptance about how your illness may impact them. How can you help them develop empathy about what you’re experiencing, especially if your illness is invisible? Where’s the line between being honest and making them worry? What’s the best way to address their concerns in kid-friendly language? This is a topic that will likely need to be an ongoing discussion in your family – and sometimes reading a book together can help!
Mommy’s Going To The Hospital
by Josie Leon
Brienna Spencer received a copy of this book as a gift from Mamas Facing Forward. She was not compensated for this review and all opinions are her own.
“Mommy’s Going to the Hospital” is a great book to help prepare a young child (2-4 years old) for a parent’s upcoming hospital stay. The book does a nice job covering the emotions a child may feel like confusion, worry, and sadness. It also covers the fact that the child’s routine may change and they may not see Mommy and that may make them angry. As the mom of very routine driven toddler, I really loved that the book addressed these issues. Anger/frustration seems to be a tough subject to cover in children’s book, and I was glad to see it wasn’t downplayed here.
I also like how the book addresses Mommy’s booboo, and how fixing the booboo is a good thing that allows Mommy to play again, etc.. It’s important to convey recovery/remission from the child’s perspective! There is no condition specified and the illness seems general (the booboo is in Mommy’s mid-section); so no feeling like there are ongoing hospital stays. The illustrations were well done especially for a children’s book. There is lots of color and detail, but not in a distracting way.
I read this book to my three-year-old and she fully understood the concept. It definitely made a hospital stay much more approachable from her perspective. The only concern I had about the book is that while Mommy is in the hospital the child is cared for only by Daddy, and there is no other family help displayed (Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles, etc.), so if you don’t have a heterosexual and/or two parent household, this book may not be the right fit for you.
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