My 4 year old killed the kittens

[tricia]

I'll rephrase that. Instead of 'killed' it was more like.....laid them to rest by accident while trying to bless them with a cozy bed.

 

But it was so sad. She put them into a cooler earlier today. Four of them. Then she just went off and left them.:tongue_smilie::tongue_smilie: I posted about it on my blog HERE. She was so sad. We were all so busy with preparing for our road trip nobody even noticed she did it. Until.....we needed the cooler we had left out in the yard to clean.

Edited May 24, 2010 by tricia

[sbgrace]

How heartbreaking! Her little face makes my heart hurt for her (and you). :grouphug:

[Rhonda in TX]

Oh, I'm so sorry. DD (barely 5 at the time) put one of our kittens in a plastic shoebox and then sat on it. We saw it in time, but it could so easily have ended differently. I'm so sad for your DD, and everyone else as well. :(

[i.love.lucy]

Oh no! Bless her tiny heart! I'm so sorry!:grouphug:

[LibraryLover]

She didn't 'kill' them, and I wouldn't be putting that out to the world. One of my good friends sat on a chick when she was the same age...it died. But she did not kill it. It was an accident and and she didn't even know she sat on one. ( A 4 yr old doesn't know the physics of a cooler!) I remember talking about this many years later with my friend and because her parents spared her, she didn't even know this happened. I am not sure I would tell a 4 yr old that she 'killed' kittens. Poor bunny. My heart breaks for her.

[PollyOR]

So sad. :grouphug:

[tricia]

She didn't 'kill' them, and I wouldn't be putting that out to the world.

 

Oh no, we didn't tell her that. Heaven forbid. She was shown how things cannot survive without air in a closed container and cautioned her to never climb into something and close the lid. The word "killed" didn't come up. Only here. You are right though, she didn't kill them.

[manylilblessings]

It looks to me that Tricia's response was quite compassionate. That post was a little harsh, IMO.

[RoughCollie]

That is a very sad accident to have occurred. Heartbreaking, really. :grouphug:

[Amber in AUS]

Oh gosh, how terrible! I can only imagine how my own children would react to an terrible accident like that.

[orangearrow]

How truly heartbreaking. :( Poor girlie. Poor kitties. :( *sigh* What a terribly hard life lesson for her. Poor kiddo.

[courtney.byrum]

Poor sweetie :( Reminds me to make sure my 4 and 5 yr olds are aware of the dangers of a closed space like that. Your poor Mary looks absolutely heartbroken, poor baby :(

[LaissezFaire]

The exact same scenario happened to a friend of mine only it was puppies. It's so hard for the little ones to understand when they thought they were being caring. :(

[joannqn]

How very sad. I hope your daughter recovers okay.

[Cindyz]

I had a similar experience growing up. I took a kitten to play with it to an area where it was not supposed to be. Somehow it got wet and I thought to put it in the dryer to dry it off so I would not be found out. :(

 

I retrieved it from the dryer when it wasn't yet dead and placed it in the hallway where my mom found it and had NO idea what happened with it.

 

I denied that I knew anything and eventually she figured it out.

 

It's one of my earliest memories.

[AlmiraGulch]

That's awful!

 

My eldest DD did something similar when she was about 3 years old. Decided the kitten needed to be cleaned and doused it with some sort of household cleaner, and kitty died.

 

The good news is that she doesn't remember it, but she was heart broken at the time.

[tricia]

She hasn't even mentioned the kittens. We had 9 of them between the 2 mothers and she is busy playing with the other ones. I'm sure she must remember though. I suppose she is just wanting to move on. And no one else has said anything either.

 

I'm so happy we are beginning our trip today for our big camping trip otherwise she may have more of the kittens on her mind but right now she is playing and excited about seeing her cousins.

[elise1mds]

Bless her little heart! I'm glad she's moving on. That must have shaken everyone up.

[LibraryLover]

I think my post sounds harsher than I meant it to. I was thinking about poor- bunny and her worrying she did something so horrible..and I thought of my sweet friend who sat on her chick and would have been devastated if she had known what she did. My old memory and sensitive friend were more on my mind that anything.

 

I am glad she is moving on. She didn't know, poor girlie.

[hsmom2girls]

I'm glad to hear she is not letting it worry her. But it is a sad situation. Enjoy your trip.

[hornblower]

Gosh. I had to log off & walk around a bit b/e I was kind of speechless.

 

I guess this is a good lesson for all of us about leaving animals unattended with young children. And this is precisely why many shelters and rescues are very reluctant to adopt out animals to families with young children. It can end very badly, very quickly. For eg. I know the bunny rescue gets in tons of bunnies with broken legs b/e bunnies are very fragile & kids drop them b/e they're not adequately supervised.

 

To me this is a very serious incident. This isn't like an ice cream cone that falls off due to carelessness and needs to be replaced. This is a living creature, which feels pain and fear. It's a terrible thing to happen.

 

I'm absolutely sorry that your dd was ever put in a position where she could make such a tragic choice.

 

If such a thing happened in our family, this lesson would stay with us a long time. The child, I agree, needs to be shielded a bit from this; the child is young and did not know & learned a lesson the hard way. But the adults would be doing some major thinking and implementing changes in our behaviour.

 

:crying:

[Caraway]

Gosh. I had to log off & walk around a bit b/e I was kind of speechless.

 

I guess this is a good lesson for all of us about leaving animals unattended with young children. And this is precisely why many shelters and rescues are very reluctant to adopt out animals to families with young children. It can end very badly, very quickly. For eg. I know the bunny rescue gets in tons of bunnies with broken legs b/e bunnies are very fragile & kids drop them b/e they're not adequately supervised.

 

To me this is a very serious incident. This isn't like an ice cream cone that falls off due to carelessness and needs to be replaced. This is a living creature, which feels pain and fear. It's a terrible thing to happen.

 

I'm absolutely sorry that your dd was ever put in a position where she could make such a tragic choice.

 

If such a thing happened in our family, this lesson would stay with us a long time. The child, I agree, needs to be shielded a bit from this; the child is young and did not know & learned a lesson the hard way. But the adults would be doing some major thinking and implementing changes in our behaviour.

 

:crying:

 

 

 

:iagree:

[Country Mouse]

Gosh. I had to log off & walk around a bit b/e I was kind of speechless.

 

I guess this is a good lesson for all of us about leaving animals unattended with young children. And this is precisely why many shelters and rescues are very reluctant to adopt out animals to families with young children. It can end very badly, very quickly. For eg. I know the bunny rescue gets in tons of bunnies with broken legs b/e bunnies are very fragile & kids drop them b/e they're not adequately supervised.

 

To me this is a very serious incident. This isn't like an ice cream cone that falls off due to carelessness and needs to be replaced. This is a living creature, which feels pain and fear. It's a terrible thing to happen.

 

I'm absolutely sorry that your dd was ever put in a position where she could make such a tragic choice.

 

If such a thing happened in our family, this lesson would stay with us a long time. The child, I agree, needs to be shielded a bit from this; the child is young and did not know & learned a lesson the hard way. But the adults would be doing some major thinking and implementing changes in our behaviour.

 

:crying:

 

Thank you for saying that, Hornblower.

[MagistraMichelle]

Sadly, these things happen. Children get into things very quickly despite our watchful eyes.

[StephanieZ]

I'd urge you to not phrase things this way.

[StephanieZ]

Gosh. I had to log off & walk around a bit b/e I was kind of speechless.

 

I guess this is a good lesson for all of us about leaving animals unattended with young children. And this is precisely why many shelters and rescues are very reluctant to adopt out animals to families with young children. It can end very badly, very quickly. For eg. I know the bunny rescue gets in tons of bunnies with broken legs b/e bunnies are very fragile & kids drop them b/e they're not adequately supervised.

 

To me this is a very serious incident. This isn't like an ice cream cone that falls off due to carelessness and needs to be replaced. This is a living creature, which feels pain and fear. It's a terrible thing to happen.

 

I'm absolutely sorry that your dd was ever put in a position where she could make such a tragic choice.

 

If such a thing happened in our family, this lesson would stay with us a long time. The child, I agree, needs to be shielded a bit from this; the child is young and did not know & learned a lesson the hard way. But the adults would be doing some major thinking and implementing changes in our behaviour.

 

:crying:

 

:iagree: I wrote more in my prior post and deleted it all before posting b/c I didn't want to be hurtful. . . But, hornblower expressed it just right.