"Mom - can we talk..."

"...I'm having bad, scary thoughts."

Said by my almost 9 year old at bedtime tonight.

I agreed to go in his room and lay with him before bed, something I don't do too often.  He seemed stressed and worried.  Now, Hubby and I had had a bit of an argument earlier in the evening, something G hates (and rightly so - we try to not do that - check that, I try not to do that, Hubby would never argue if he could avoid it...).  But it had been a quick raised voice conversation that was over quickly, and G heard us apologize to each other.  I assumed, however, that that was the issue.

Turns out it wasn't.

"Mom, I have been having bad thoughts all day.  I started thinking about dying.  And I've decided - I'm afraid of dying."

Aren't we all?

How the hell do I answer that concern? 

I went with the "honesty is the best policy" concept.

"G - you know, I'm afraid of dying too.  I think almost everyone is.  When I was a kid, I used to scare myself by thinking about dying.  It's one of those things that's scary and that you know will someday happen.  My best advice to you is to try to believe that it won't happen for a very very long time - and in the meantime, don't think about it.  If the idea does pop into your head, try to go to your happy place.  It's hard and it's scary, but if you think about it too much, it's worse."

"Thanks Mom.  I hope I don't die for a really really long time."

He then snuggled up in my armpit and laid there for about 10 minutes.  He seemed very serene when he was done.

Let's hope I did my job as a parent, and did it the right way.