I am very frustrated with some posts...

[Mattemma]

I tell my kids all the time that having pets/animals means that eventually we will be dealing with their deaths. Everyone thinks I am mean for bringing up death. I talk about it too with family,because afterall we all are going to die and personally I would prefer to know final wishes.

Ds and I were just talking the other day how we got more eggs from 3 hens than we get from 7.We are at the point where we just have chickens as pets,lol.

A harder thing for me is the expectation to *do something* medically when an animal is sick.Sometimes there is nothing that can be done,and throwing away thousands to try and postpone a death is foolish.Still working on this reality with my own.

I think it is good to talk about these things with kids.Good to try and prepare mentally,but the deaths will always pain us no matter how much we do prepare.

 

[theoldchick]

Sometimes I wonder if a poster states her kid will be devastated really means they are devastated and are afraid to admit it. I remember being distraught over a death of a pet when I was 6 years old. My mom explained death to me, and to accept death as a necessary part of life. She never belittled me for caring about an animal even if it was a 50 cent hamster. She helped me say good bye to them and encouraged me to cry for she believed tears helped us heal and start over.

 

[dmccann]

some times the people on this forum r the only ones i can talk to ,that they understand how i feel.

 

[Royd]

This is the direction our society has gone, sadly.The president was right about something. We have become soft. We have become a nation of great expectations, without putting forth great efforts. When you think about it though, that's how its been troughout history. Each generation wants to relieve some of the hardship, which they endured, from the following generation.

In our generation, I find a great dicotomy. Most people born in the 50's and 60's couldn't wait to get away from home and do their own thing. Spread their wings and experience all that the world had to offer.
Then, they turn around and coddle their children to the point that, at the age of 26, they still are not able to leave the nest. They have literally created a generation of emotional and phycological cripples....Not all, mind you, but it's not an anomoly.

We seem to be the only species who just can't learn from nature....Look at the chickens. Mother hen takes care of the little ones, up to about 8 weeks, and then, they simply become their own entity, having nothing to do with mom, as if they never knew her.

 

[Royd]

Quote:
Platitudes are useless, when you are up to your ___ in alligators....Oh, that is a platitude.

 

[chickened]

I have found and seen/experienced that children are far better at dealing with traumatic events than the insecure parents realize and that a parent can actually feed the inability to cope with such things as fretting and over dramatizing things like unhatched eggs or a dead chick and then tell them how disappointing it is when the kid usually doesn't care any more than the fact they just did not make it. Parents (I am one) tend to want to live out certain parts of their life failures and successes through their children sometimes unknowingly.

I do understand where you are coming from OP and you make a good point.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:
I hatch eggs almost every week live on the internet. Like everyone else, I have eggs that die before completely hatching an some that do hatch but die right after. Its just the nature of life. But I get all kinds of hate-mail about how "there kid didn't need to see that" or a hundred other things I am doing wrong that involve them having to see chicks stepping on each other or pecking at each other or what have you.


An I wont even get in to the hate-mail I got for the Easter hatch....

 

[WoodlandWoman]

It's natural for children to be feeling emotions when their chickens are seriously ill and just as natural for their parents to have emotions about that. They both have to learn to deal with those emotions.

I don't think the average parent is trying to get help by using emotional blackmail on other members of the forum. I think they're just expressing their own stress. They're responsible for the situation, their children and the chickens. They know they need to do something, but they don't know what that something is.

If you can offer useful advice and want to make that effort, do it. More often than not, there is something they should be doing or something they should do differently the next time. Occasionally, there isn't. That's good for people to know, too. They just need to know that. They come for help because they honestly have no idea.

With other animals or chickens, my approach is to treat what I can, prevent future problems when I can, provide comfort when I can and euthanize when there is no hope and an animal is suffering. Sometimes I need additional information along the way. I think that's what most people are looking for.

Reading on forums can invoke emotions that everyone has to learn to deal with, too. You can end up emotionally overwhelmed or burned out. People adapt in different ways. Sometimes you need to limit how much you're reading or the types of things you're reading. Sometimes you need a little break. I know there are times when I do.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
Your mother is/was very wise.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Quote:
I hatch eggs almost every week live on the internet. Like everyone else, I have eggs that die before completely hatching an some that do hatch but die right after. Its just the nature of life. But I get all kinds of hate-mail about how "there kid didn't need to see that" or a hundred other things I am doing wrong that involve them having to see chicks stepping on each other or pecking at each other or what have you.


An I wont even get in to the hate-mail I got for the Easter hatch....

Huh, if they don't want to see it, they don't have to watch it. It's not as if you can program a chick to behave a certain way.