Being a farm kid is hard

We have a cat that adopted us and had kittens. The kittens are now 8 weeks old and we've begun re-homing them. Last night we re-homed the first one. Then I had to hold my sobbing daughter for half an hour as she was just devastated to have re-homed the kitten. 5 more to go. That's 2 and a half hours of sobbing child. Being a farm kid is hard.

Idea: Give the adopters a "thank you" card or postcard, stamped and addressed to your daughter -- either "thank you for letting Fluffy be part of our family," or "thank you for finding me a new home, it's really nice, signed Fluffy." An emailed pic of the kitten in a happy house with a ball of yarn would also help.

Your kid is lucky to have a parent who accepts her emotions and gives her a chance to express them. It can be really, really hard to parent (at least, a conscious parent- and I use this term to include aunties, teachers, grandparents, etc, all of us who try to help kids grow) but it is also very rewarding, definitely a worthy permaculture activity.

To be honest I think that going through these painful losses as a child and having loving, supporting adults help them through it, is a crucial part of learning how to cope with loss later in life. I think your daughter is going to be a much stronger (and happier) person for it in the long run.

Thanks ya'll. I'm not a perfect parent but I try. We did have a talk while we ate dinner that we could not keep all the cats. So when she had a breakdown I was rather surprised. I certainly would rather she didn't. It was hard on my back and butt to sit on the floor of her room for half an hour with her sobbing on me. But I informed her Dad, who kept trying to distract her from the whole thing, that she needed to grieve for the cat and we'd let her. Oh boy though. Tough! Part of me wanted to keep them all for her after that.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Idea: Give the adopters a "thank you" card or postcard, stamped and addressed to your daughter -- either "thank you for letting Fluffy be part of our family," or "thank you for finding me a new home, it's really nice, signed Fluffy." An emailed pic of the kitten in a happy house with a ball of yarn would also help.

They're off to be barn cats, not house pets. I mean, they could keep them as house pets. The Mom has litter box trained them. Everyone interested in them wants mousers though.

elle sagenev wrote:They're off to be barn cats, not house pets. I mean, they could keep them as house pets. The Mom has litter box trained them. Everyone interested in them wants mousers though.

Makes sense. I don't know how exactly, but it would be great if your daughter could see this as helping other people, rather than losing a kitten.