Korean Job Discussion Forums

[riverboy]

Well folks, right out of scene from Leave it to Beaver, the wife and I bought some new fish. The young lad decided to keep adding cold water to the aquariaul and my wife told him it was going to kill the fish.

true enough, one of the goofies turnede belly up and poor little fella is quite devastated. And when I was tucking him in tonight, he was pretty down about the ordeal. I told him it was ok and he proceeded to ask me "Why?"

I really couldn't figure out what to say in this situation. I gave him a kiss and a hug and told him death happened to every living thing. Then I asked him if he liked to eat fish. He replied with the affirmative and I told him that the fish he eats all have to die.

Maybe some of you have had this experience before. I've been able to handle most minor parenting dilemma's resonably well(or so I think) and I have a beautiful little boy whom I am so pround of and love more than life itself.

How would you parents out there have, or how have you handled any similar situations?

Thanks

RB

[helly]

Fishy heaven is a good place, according now to my little one. it has more water than the tank.

[HapKi]

Same age, same fish story, same situation, cept' 2 fish ganged up on a couple others and they floated to the bottom.

I just said the toilet flush ride is a secret tunnel to a better place.

[riverboy]

[Omkara]

This reminds of the time, when I was a middle school student, that my buddy's little brother's goldfish died. He as so sad.

So, we had a funeral. My buddy played taps on his trumpet as we walked in slow procession toward the bathroom. I held the little guy, who was floating belly-up in a clear plastic cup of water, out at arm's length. We walked slowly, slowly, taps playing in time with our step. Finally, we three stood before that white portal into the other world. I turned the cup, and let the little guy splash into the cool water beneath, the little brother weeping--he was in kindergarten.

My buddy kept playing taps; then, without stopping, he bent forward, put the end of the trumpet just beneath the surface of the toilet water, and played a bubbling version of taps as he flushed the little guy into the underworld.

The little brother hit him and ran out of the bathroom just bawling. The mother then came out and asked what the problem was. The little brother, sniffling, explained.

Then mother tried to console him, told him that the little fish was in a better place now, happy in heaven. The little guy, tears streaming down his face said, "No, he's not! He's in the sewer!"

Well, that's the atheist's response.

[riverboy]

LOL! That's a good story Omkara. Thanks!

[poet13]

Last summer, when my son was three, we blooded him. He helped me kill some rabbits. I held the rabbits, he cut where I directed him to. He shed a tear, and we talked about it for quite a while.

I remember being much softer about that stuff when I was a kid.

[helly]

School setting so I didn't have the parent obligation but a kindy hagwan I worked at had gerbils. the little ones loved them dearly and always wanted to have class in the animal room.

well, one long holiday weekend, we kind of neglected the poor little things (probably were drinking in the teachers room all day getting ready for the weekend - it was that kind of place), didn't think that someone needed to take them home, or that we needed to give extra food.

so, when we all came back after the holiday, we had our first experience with cannibalism, where the dominant rodent was so hungy that he ate the other, then died - either from overstuffing himself or from some sort of toxic, karmic revenge. bones, fur, teeth all over the cage, and a dead bloated gerbil on his back in the corner with a tail hanging out of his mouth.

kids saw it and promptly let us know what happened with a blunt "Teacher, gerbil (make sign of knife slashing a throat). they seemed to handle death in this case pretty well.