Will Smama mentioned her son winning a fish at the church picnic. It was a lovely Beta which he named Bubbles. I had flashbacks to my son's first Beta, which was red, and after a day, he decided to name "Ahhhred." Made sense to me.
Well, after a month, Ahhhred was found floating at the top of the tank. I hurried up and flushed him. Try explaining to a 2 year old how you can flush dead fish, but you can't flush live cats. I was not prepared to have that conversation. So I flushed him and when the lad mentioned that the fish was no longer in the tank, I told him that Ahhhred was at the pet store visiting his friends. He would call us when he was ready to come home and we could go get him.
Nice one, Mommy! This gave me time to clean the tank!
So we went to the pet store a week or two after Ahhhred bit the dust. We walked past the Beta section and I asked him to find Ahhhred, since he had called us to tell us he was ready to go home. Well, he swiped another red fish in its fragile plastic bowl off the shelf and exclaimed, "I found Murray Fish!" Murray Fish it is.
Since then, Murray Fish has died a number of times. Each time, I flush him (sans lad's help) and then clean the tank. If the lad asks, Murray Fish is asleep in his castle. Then, I sneak off to the pet store when the lad is at preschool and replace Murray Fish. Whoever said Betas are hardy has not been to my house.
So am I a bad parent because I have not had the death conversation with my son? I don't think so. I have said I would never lie to my sons. But, "asleep" could mean "eternal rest," right?
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6 comments:
lol, Drew.
Personally, I think you are ok. Now, if you were replacing dogs, cats or other things no. But somehow fish are different... and totally replaceable.
Eventually your sons are going to be the one to spot the dead fish and someone is going to have to give that speech. Better write it now.
I don't know about your son...I'm just wondering if there are any Beta hatcheries that sell public traded stock.
My my I go from watching colorful singing condoms dance to a happy tune to reading about fish death it's a strange day in blog land....
Here's my thinking...you are OK with the replaceable fish...he's too young to understand death unless he had to (a person who is close or one of the dogs/cats) - but even then I'm not sure how to do it - although as stated above, you might want to start thinking about how you'd word it or what you want to say when to can't make dead Murray fish come back w/o him noticing.
You're not a bad parent; you're a very funny one. Not that pets dying is funny, but Ahhred visiting his friends cracked me up.
He's too young for the death talk, IMHO.
Give him a couple of years at least.
My betta's name is Luther, and he thrives quite happily in one of those "plant and fishbowl" arrangements. Have had him for well over a year...
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