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- #11
Thanks for the replies, and the wishes of good luck.
Maybe I should explain a little bit of why I chose to "decieve" my little girl, but first let me clarify a few things.
First off,
Cameron is a very well grounded little girl for her age. She is well aware of many of the facts of life, and understands that sometimes things happen that we can not control, or would prefer to have differently. She has had some exposure to some of lifes difficult realities and she has had her share of learning about things that usually are not in a 8 year olds daily environment.
Her older brother Nickolas, 10 years old, has Down Syndrome, and she is fully aware and educated on what that means, how it effects him, and how it makes many things different for him, compared to her or other kids.
She can, and does, even explain to her friends and classmates, that some things are harder for him because he has difficulty learning, when they ask.. "Why does Nickolas talk funny?" or "Why can't he understand like us?". She is quite protective of him, and she knows not to get mad or upset when people ask. We have taught her that it is better for Nickolas, and better for everyone who ask's, when we take the time to answer their questions, and help THEM to learn also.
She understands that animals and people, eat other animals,... and that those animals must die first for that to happen. She enjoys going fishing with me, and has had plenty of fish dinners. (Although she refuses to clean any of the fish we catch, **cuz that's a gross daddy job**), But, she's right there at the BBQ, ready and waiting.
She is ok with ALL of that. as a matter of fact,... eating Chicken is TOPS on her list of "What's for dinner ?" and comes in second only, to Chocolate or cheese. (although she has also clearly pointed out to me, that THESE chickens are our PETS,... and we WILL NOT be having them for dinner! LOL!
She also understands that some animals can be very Dangerous, and that we need to be careful around any dangerous animals so that we can avoid being hurt or even killed.
This was a good lesson recently learned, with a physical example, on one of our camping trips last fall.
After waking up and getting out of bed, I pulled on my boots, made some coffee, and went outside the camper to straighten up camp a bit.
The kids had played around the campfire the night before while making some 'smores, and hobo pies. Some of the firewood had gotten tossed around, and I was collecting it back into a neat pile.
As I was walking around picking up the sticks, I noticed that one of the sticks was coming right at me.
Yep you guessed it,... A full grown Sidewinder Rattlesnake smack in the middle of our campsite.
I called out for my wife to bring the kids outside, for me to do a "Show and tell", and so I could use the oppurtunity to explain the importance of being careful around dangerous animals and their habitat.
although there was a little joking here on my part, the lessons were clearly recieved by the kids, and here are a couple of links to some videos of that experience...
Cameron is also no stranger to losing a beloved pet, as we have lost two of our dogs in the past few years, of natural causes, i.e., old age.
The first was our Pug about 4 years ago, and she does remember good ol' "Yoda", and understands that he died.
The second was 2 years ago, when we lost our Britanny Spaniel, "Princess". This was a dog that slept with Cameron on her bed each night, and was Dearly loved by Cameron.
She also understands that one of the reasons we built our coop/pen, is to honor a man who was like a second dad to me when I was a kid, who recently passed away. I went to Texas to attend his funeral a few months ago, and Cameron knows all about it. Mr. Metzger was a great positive inspiration in my early years, who taught all of us kids about hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. He had a large aviary where we raised many different types of birds, and I grew up across the street from him. I will miss him dearly.
so our coop/pen was built to honor him, and to hopefully re-create some of those fantastic experiences for my own kids.
Cameron clearly understands what death is.
So with all of that, the reason that I choose to "decieve" her on the loss of "Goldie", was because she was so excited last weekend to be getting her new pet chicks. We had spent weeks together reading and learning about different types of chickens, reading on this forum, and generally enjoying all that comes with it.
This is a new experience for her, and "Goldie" was the first pet she has ever gotton to pick out **all by herself**.
She has only had her for 2 days, and I felt that rather than have her feel the understandable sorrow of losing that brand new pet,.. it would be better for her to feel that the bird was still alive and well and hopefully will grow to give us some eggs to have for our breakfast.
Something that Cameron is looking VERY forward to, as "Bacon'n'Eggs" are her favorite thing to have for breakfast. "With Cheese on top Please".
(and yes,..... She is well aware of where the bacon comes from too).
Btw- I am happy to report that when she came home from school, she did not see anything amiss with the chicks, and all is well.
Maybe I should explain a little bit of why I chose to "decieve" my little girl, but first let me clarify a few things.
First off,
Cameron is a very well grounded little girl for her age. She is well aware of many of the facts of life, and understands that sometimes things happen that we can not control, or would prefer to have differently. She has had some exposure to some of lifes difficult realities and she has had her share of learning about things that usually are not in a 8 year olds daily environment.
Her older brother Nickolas, 10 years old, has Down Syndrome, and she is fully aware and educated on what that means, how it effects him, and how it makes many things different for him, compared to her or other kids.
She can, and does, even explain to her friends and classmates, that some things are harder for him because he has difficulty learning, when they ask.. "Why does Nickolas talk funny?" or "Why can't he understand like us?". She is quite protective of him, and she knows not to get mad or upset when people ask. We have taught her that it is better for Nickolas, and better for everyone who ask's, when we take the time to answer their questions, and help THEM to learn also.
She understands that animals and people, eat other animals,... and that those animals must die first for that to happen. She enjoys going fishing with me, and has had plenty of fish dinners. (Although she refuses to clean any of the fish we catch, **cuz that's a gross daddy job**), But, she's right there at the BBQ, ready and waiting.
She is ok with ALL of that. as a matter of fact,... eating Chicken is TOPS on her list of "What's for dinner ?" and comes in second only, to Chocolate or cheese. (although she has also clearly pointed out to me, that THESE chickens are our PETS,... and we WILL NOT be having them for dinner! LOL!
She also understands that some animals can be very Dangerous, and that we need to be careful around any dangerous animals so that we can avoid being hurt or even killed.
This was a good lesson recently learned, with a physical example, on one of our camping trips last fall.
After waking up and getting out of bed, I pulled on my boots, made some coffee, and went outside the camper to straighten up camp a bit.
The kids had played around the campfire the night before while making some 'smores, and hobo pies. Some of the firewood had gotten tossed around, and I was collecting it back into a neat pile.
As I was walking around picking up the sticks, I noticed that one of the sticks was coming right at me.
Yep you guessed it,... A full grown Sidewinder Rattlesnake smack in the middle of our campsite.
I called out for my wife to bring the kids outside, for me to do a "Show and tell", and so I could use the oppurtunity to explain the importance of being careful around dangerous animals and their habitat.
although there was a little joking here on my part, the lessons were clearly recieved by the kids, and here are a couple of links to some videos of that experience...
Cameron is also no stranger to losing a beloved pet, as we have lost two of our dogs in the past few years, of natural causes, i.e., old age.
The first was our Pug about 4 years ago, and she does remember good ol' "Yoda", and understands that he died.
The second was 2 years ago, when we lost our Britanny Spaniel, "Princess". This was a dog that slept with Cameron on her bed each night, and was Dearly loved by Cameron.
She also understands that one of the reasons we built our coop/pen, is to honor a man who was like a second dad to me when I was a kid, who recently passed away. I went to Texas to attend his funeral a few months ago, and Cameron knows all about it. Mr. Metzger was a great positive inspiration in my early years, who taught all of us kids about hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry. He had a large aviary where we raised many different types of birds, and I grew up across the street from him. I will miss him dearly.
so our coop/pen was built to honor him, and to hopefully re-create some of those fantastic experiences for my own kids.
Cameron clearly understands what death is.
So with all of that, the reason that I choose to "decieve" her on the loss of "Goldie", was because she was so excited last weekend to be getting her new pet chicks. We had spent weeks together reading and learning about different types of chickens, reading on this forum, and generally enjoying all that comes with it.
This is a new experience for her, and "Goldie" was the first pet she has ever gotton to pick out **all by herself**.
She has only had her for 2 days, and I felt that rather than have her feel the understandable sorrow of losing that brand new pet,.. it would be better for her to feel that the bird was still alive and well and hopefully will grow to give us some eggs to have for our breakfast.
Something that Cameron is looking VERY forward to, as "Bacon'n'Eggs" are her favorite thing to have for breakfast. "With Cheese on top Please".
(and yes,..... She is well aware of where the bacon comes from too).
Btw- I am happy to report that when she came home from school, she did not see anything amiss with the chicks, and all is well.
