"Mommy, Where's my Dad?"?
Answers:
she is 5, dont tell her the truth, this is the innocent stage of her life and the time where she is living and learning.. but somethings children arent and dont need to know at this age... just tell her, that daddy is away and he will be home in due time! it must be hard, but i hope everything works out for you... good luck!
Other Answers:
Be as honest with her as you can be in a way suitable for her age and level of understanding.
i would for sure not tell her the truth. she is too young to know. are you in contact at all with him? will she eventually meet him? if so, you could tell her that he lives far away, and that she will meet him when she is 7 years old. that is a hard one. good luck! Tell the truth using the language that suit her. Make sure U tell her that people make mistake and her father is in prison paying for his mistake and will be with the two of u in a few years.
Don't divulge too much to a five year old, she won't really get it and it may scare her. If you are still in contact with him and want her to know him later, tell her that Daddy broke the rules and is on time out for a while. And that when little people break house hold rules they get time out for a little while but when big people break the laws they get time out for a long time. Then allow her to ask questions and try to answer them honestly without being too graphic. If she asks what law he broke or something tell her in simple terms. Theft ; he took something that wasn't his...:Drugs; he took medicine that didn't belong to him. If Dad isn't going to be in the picture tell her that her father didn't want to follow the rules and got into trouble. And that he couldn't be a good Daddy if he was in trouble all the time. Mommies and Daddies have to teach their kids how to be good people and if he doesn't want be one, how can he teach her.
Be as honest as you can with her an explain it so she can understand what happened an what will happen,an how it effects her. She will thank you for the honesty later in life an it might just help teach that life does have consequencies (bad spelling) for the things we do, an that people can change if they want to.i think you answered your own question.she is so young .when she is older then she can know if you want her too.but seems like you are doing the best thing ,that not saying bad things about her dad.good luck to you both. What i will advice u to do is to simply tell her the truth because if u don't, u will have problem with her when she will know the truth. Tell her what happen because u may be thinking that she is only a child of which she knows what she is doing. Her father is her father no matter what happen, there is this saying, blood is thicker than water and is true, her father will ever be hers, so just let her know what is going on because if she discover in future that u were deceiving her, she will not trust u any longer.
Good luck, i know it is difficult but just try.
Relindis
Tell her that Dad's only exist in fairytales and that they are fake just like Santa Clause- but she must NEVER tell her friends this- because their mommys have went to alot of trouble to hire fake daddys to make them believe it more. Yes this is a controversial one, but as a mom who had this happen too, I can give you the advice that I used. My son was 2 when his Dad went to jail. He was not allowed any contact while in. Dad spent 5 yrs there. My son was 7 when he was released. I told him the truth but in a version suited for his age. Daddy did something really bad, that broke the law(rules) and the judge at court decided that daddy needed to take alot of time to think about it, so he sent him to jail. When the judge thinks daddy has behaved and will no longer do the bad thing again, he will let him out. I also had a vindictive grandmother (paternal) who had court ordered visitation with my son, and kept telling him it was my fault that daddy was in jail. And that because I would not sign consent he could not see his dad, so after every visit I had to do damage control. The truth will never hurt you, lies come back and kick you harder than you can imagine.
My son is now 16 and has a very good relationship with his father, and we(ex) do not live together.
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