Use the book and website to help prepare children for temporary paternal separation.
My Daddy's Going Away... can be read on a number of different levels:
1. At its simplest, My Daddy's Going Away... can be read and understood by young children as a simple tale of a loving Dad who has to leave the family to go away to work, he loves his children while he is away, they miss him but remain connected through their thoughts and deeds, and at the end of the book Dad comes home.
When read through as a story the poem aims to normalise the familiar cycle of departure, absence and return that all children recognise.
2. As children think more about what the text actually says, the poem will prompt their thoughts and imagination about how the family in the story react to Dad's absence and will enable them to ask relevant questions in their own way and in their own time.
3. At a higher level, older children and adults can read the verses and relate each one to the Emotional Cycle of Separation and known coping strategies for absence - if parents and carers do this they will be able to help children prepare for and deal with temporary paternal separation by actively addressing each stage of the cycle with their children. Go to the Paternal Separation page now for more information about this.