First thoughts: I can't believe she's dead. She was just fine this morning.
THEN: Crap! Can we get it to Petland and get another before the kids notice?
After talking it over, our final decision was to tell the kids and explain to them what happened. We figured that it would be the best and easiest way to explain death to them instead of them learning the hard way by (heaven forbid) losing someone other than a pet. I know that there is no easy way to explain death or even an easy way for them to understand death. Especially when they're our kids' age, at this point their view of the world is very literal. They have a hard time understanding that all people and living things eventually die, and that they won't come back.
We were honest, never used euphemisms, and we encouraged questions. They don't need to know every little detail, but they deserve to know the facts. (This also was how I approached the "sex talk" with Joseph when he started asking questions a while back). If you're curious about that conversation, let me know, I'll tell you how it went.
Joseph, of course, understood much more than the girls about death. Joseph took it pretty hard. He was very sad and cried and asked a lot of questions. He was pleased with our answers and was reassured that we can go on living and being happy. We asked if they wanted another hamster and they almost instantly forgot about Ying Yang's passing.
Tressa picked out a cute little orange colored hamster and named her Tinkerbell. So now we HAVE two hamsters again and the kids are pleased. Tinkerbell is super sweet and lets us hold her and hasn't bitten anyone YET. Hopefully she'll make it longer than two weeks.
How would you have approached this situation? How have you approached this situation?
Jaclyn & Jonathan
