Okay, it happened......
Cookie the caterpillar croaked.
It was moving around the first day and then progressively less. By day two, it wasn't moving at all. Then it turned completely black and is now totally flat- not good. It's definitely dead. So...what would you do? Carter eagerly checked on it every day to see what it was doing. Would you tell your kids OR do the age-old pet swap and sneak in the new Cookie under the cover of night?
We're going with plan B. Cookie is conveniently "visiting" Ms. Kim's house. When we pick him up he will be so rested and rejuvenated! (She's doing the swap for us.) Is this wrong? We struggled with it..........briefly. When we come face to face with death in our lives we did not intend to hide it from our kids. If it were a friend, family member, or our own cat we would tell them the truth, but for this time we want to spare them the heartache. This was a tough one for us because we don't shield our kids from consequences regularly. We feel strongly against it actually, but they didn't do anything wrong in this case- unless loving and befriending a little caterpillar is wrong?
I guess that's how life is. With all love there is risk. When we choose to give a piece of out heart away, anything can happen to it. For now I just want them to continue to love without abandon. I want to save their hearts from a few of life's scars to keep them tender and ready to share freely.
Farewell Cookie. Welcome Cookie II, I hope we watch you fly away one day!
2 comments:
Keep swapping cookies until you get a butterfly! :)
Tough call Amber. As you may know, we had two cats pass last year, Sammy a few weeks ago, then the hermit crab died a few days after Sammy...Connor is unfortunately very familiar with loss. But, it has really opened the door and his mind to thinking about where do we go when we die, and offers him peace. I'm not criticizing swapping Cookie, I may as well done the same...I'd just advise looking at the opportunity in the loss. But like you, I'm out to protect Connor's heart and let him love without abandon. It's amazing when I see that despite loss, he can still do that. Miss you bunches!
Post a Comment