Dealing with Dead Turtles
So, as I wrote in the last blog, we had three turtles that my four boys loved. And suddenly, the big one had something coming from his nose, and then the medium one did, and the next thing we knew, they were dead. I had never seen a dead turtle before, and it was awfully sad to see it. But, not as sad as it was to explain to my sons. How does one explain that their turtles have suddenly and mysteriously died. Did they die from fighting? Did they have a disease that my kids now had on their hands from playing with the turtles for the past week! We didn't know what had happened, but now we needed to deal with the kids' grief and bury the turtles.
Thankfully, my husband took charge. He scooped the turtles into a box and carted them away with my two older boys. They buried them and then one son came running into the house - he needed a permanent marker. "For what?" I asked. "We are going to write on the rock next to the turtles mom!" Well, duh. So nice. So, they went out and wrote a note, "Here are the turtles we loved." I assumed they would come in with long faces and the desire to talk. So, when they entered, I was a bit surprised when Dan said, "That was sad. Mom, can I have a popsicle." And he never looked back. Kids are funny...but, maybe it's healthy to grieve for only a bit and then move on.
