Fair Play Grief & Loss Guide
We created this guide in partnership with Fair Play because grief doesn’t just show up at funerals or the obvious moments.
It shows up in folding the shirt someone gave you that is no longer here, the no longer possible adventures, the silence on your commute, the grocery store run passing by their favorite items, the brain fog at work, the moments you can’t catch your breath, and the invisible labor no one else sees.
Fair Play is known for making the invisible labor of home visible and shareable. Together, we wanted to bring that same visibility, equity, and care to one of the heaviest, most isolating forms of labor: grief.
This guide is for the parents and caregivers holding it together while falling apart. For the coworkers unsure what to say. For the partners who want to help, but don’t know how. For anyone navigating the death of a loved one or supporting someone who is.
Inside, you’ll find:
Language to name what’s happening when words fail
A breakdown of the invisible and emotional labor of loss
Fair Play’s signature CPE approach—Conception, Planning, Execution—applied to grief
Tools to share the load, set a Minimum Standard of Care, and reassign responsibilities
Real stories, conversation prompts, and space to reflect
Support for both those grieving and those supporting them
Resources to support your journey of loss and grief
We can’t fix grief. But we can name it. We can witness it. We can hold it with more care. We can give it space to live and breathe just like our loved ones and life experiences once did.
And we can stop making people go through it alone.
Download this guide as a kindness to yourself and others who are grieving and use it as a starting point to prepare and navigate it all.
I genuinely hope you get use out of it. It's something I wish I had when I was grieving after the sudden loss of my mom at 4 months postpartum with my third child. And, it's been a way to explore my own grief healing to honor my mom and what she brought to this world by taking her pain and helping others through theirs.
Take care of yourself. Reach out to me, Christy@theparentstable.com, if you need a listening ear or ways to better use the guide.
Gratefully yours,
Christy