20/11/2025
Some really good replies here ⬇️
💙🩷🩵
The Sayings We Hate the Most – and Kinder Ways to Respond
When you’ve lost someone you love, especially a child, you quickly learn there are certain phrases that cut deeper than silence. Most people mean well… but their words can land like stones on an already broken heart.
Here are some of the sayings many bereaved parents and families struggle with — and some gentle ways we can respond when we have the strength:
❌ “Time heals.”
✔️ Kind reply: “Time doesn’t heal, but it does help me learn how to carry this love and this pain side by side.”
❌ “They wouldn’t want you to be sad.”
✔️ Kind reply: “I know they’d want me to keep living, but grieving them is part of my love for them.”
❌ “You need to get over it.”
✔️ Kind reply: “We never ‘get over’ someone we love. I’m learning to live with my loss, one day at a time.”
❌ “You should…”
✔️ Kind reply: “Right now I’m doing the best I can. Every grief journey is different.”
❌ “Everything happens for a reason.”
✔️ Kind reply: “This loss has no reason that could ever make sense. I’m simply trying to survive it.”
❌ “At least they’re in a better place.”
✔️ Kind reply: “The best place for them was here with me.”
❌ “You’re so strong.”
✔️ Kind reply: “I don’t feel strong. I’m just getting through each moment.”
❌ “You can have another child.”
✔️ Kind reply: “No child replaces another. Each is loved, wanted, and deeply missed.”
Sometimes we have the energy to respond with grace, and sometimes we don’t — and that’s perfectly okay.
Grief is heavy, and the responsibility to educate others shouldn’t fall on our shoulders… but when we choose to respond kindly, we do so for our own peace, not theirs.
To everyone walking this road: you are not alone.
We see you, we understand you, and we honour the love you carry every single day.
Words by TCFV
Art: Pinterest
