I concur with stitching_JA. I had a similar case, when the mother was very popular with the kids and she was mourned a lot. The dad was mean (literally) and had some negative with both his son and daughter. They completely ignore his grave.
So, from a purely game effectiveness perspective, it would make sense to get into a fight with your kids when your end nears so they don't have to suffer as much... and you should never actively mourn, since it just gives you a bad moodlet and nothing good. In TS3, the moodlet was cut in half by mourning, this made sense.
On the topic of not handling death as decently as one might. It just occured to me that sadness is one of the few emotions you cannot die from, when actually ... well Robin Williams certainly didn't laugh himself to death.
Talking about a game not teaching a life lesson. I have to say this hypocritical lying-for-children makes me angry, not very angry, but it will probably pass in 2 hours anyway, just like pixeled breastfeeding. I just have to make sure my son does not play the game unsupervised, otherwise he will just ask at the funeral of his grand-aunt why we don't give her a potion of resurrection. Oh, ups , that was another game.