LP, Chester & my daughter.

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

As some of you may know I have a 4 y.o daughter who loves Linkin Park since she was a baby, now that she's almost 5 she knows stuff about the band she has her own favorite songs right now Heavy Is The Crown and Cross Off (lol wtf)

 

I've never seen anyone doing headbanging to the LP songs as my daughter for real.

 

I know that its an odd question but I'm looking for advice.

we watch videos from every era almost everyday.

 

but now she is starting to ask.. where is Chester? why he is not with the band singing with Emily?

and its kinda weird but that comment caught me off guard, made me feel kinda sad and I don't really know what to say to her.

 

what should I do?

[GreyFox-AFCA]

Has she ever dealt with death in your family/friend circle?
Maybe you can explain it to her the same way you told her how your relative passed away.

If that's not the case maybe you can tell her he was really sick, and couldn't perform anymore.
As she gets older you can tell the truth when she's more understanding.

[bloodbath]

That's a hard question to answer dude. I'm not a father so I can't give you an answer about how to deal with such a sensitive matter, but I do appreciate that you bring an interesting and different topic to the table. Whatever you choose, I hope you have a positive outcome

Edited November 29 by bloodbath

[Darkstryder]

I'm kind of in the same situation, with a daughter who loves LP. However she's a tiny bit older : six year old, almost seven. Last year when I got the Meteora20 box set, I had her listen to a couple songs and she was hooked. She wanted to listen to LP basically every day ever since.

 

I think earlier this year I decided to explain to her that Chester was dead. However I never explained to her the circumstances and I don't intend to until much later.

 

At first she found it a bit strange to have a female singer but she really liked The Emptiness Machine and a couple days ago she told me a funny thing which could be translated as: "you know, Linkin Park, they used to have a male singer and now they have a female singer. I think it is more original that way". So now she likes both the old and new lineup.

 

Back to you, there is a lot of difference between a 4 year old and a 6 year old though. I think when my daughter was 4 yo herself, she would not have been ready to hear about death. I think at this age you can get a lot of mileage saying simply "the male singer is gone, he doesn't sing anymore. It is a female singer now". At this age she should take it at face value. When the questions will get more precise, you will naturally come to more precise answers.

 

I think it's also possible you might be projecting your own anxiety/grief on the topic on your daughter, because I certainly was. When she got into LP I was definitely anxious for months about the day I would have to tell her Chester died. In the end the right time came naturally and I told her in simple words, and it went a lot smoothier than I expected. But again, my daughter is 2 years older than yours and I acknowledge this make a big difference. My only advice is to not rush the thing.

 

Shout out to all the LP daughters out there!

Edited November 30 by Darkstryder