I agree here -- my initial response was "don't switch, life lesson for sure" -- my kids have already dealt with the death of one of our dogs, and also had to learn/understand that each of our foster pets isn't our 'forever pet' and why we are fostering to help them, etc. That was hard but necessary. BUT, my children have not had the traumatic event of abandonment happen to them, so after I read that clarification, then I wasn't sure anymore, because it seems like just another blow at this fragile time in her life. I definitely second the idea of asking the therapist what they think about it.
The child is 7.The answer to any parenting question asked on the DIS is, "Yes, you are a bad parent by doing/thinking of doing that. Your child will be scarred for life if you do it."
Of course, that is meant tongue-in-cheek.
Your child is 3. It doesn't really matter. Do what works for your family. Eventually, the tadpole/frog will croak and not wake up again.
Thanks. I found that on google too. Apparently there are "forever tadpoles" that for whatever reason never turn into frogs.
Eww! That is what our tadpole looks like, except much smaller of course.Yup. Could be like this guy! https://nypost.com/2018/06/14/researchers-catch-gigantic-tadpole-in-arizona/
The child is 7.
But the OP came here to ask a very specific parenting question, should everyone have answered “do what you want?” One angle I didn’t think of is her realizing the switch and the broken trust (although I don’t know how one could switch out a deformed frog with a normal one and not be questioned).My mistake.
My response is still the same. OP should do what works best for their family and forget everybody's parenting opinions here from the Peanut Gallery.
You posted your opinion. I posted mine. It doesn't really matter what we think. What matters is what the OP & his/her spouse/co-parent decides to do. That's all that matters. So the OP is looking for some validation that he/she isn't being a horrible parent by replacing a tadpole in order to avoid telling the kid that the tadpole died. BIG DEAL! It is not an existential crisis.But the OP came here to ask a very specific parenting question, should everyone have answered “do what you want?” One angle I didn’t think of is her realizing the switch and the broken trust (although I don’t know how one could switch out a deformed frog with a normal one and not be questioned).
You posted your opinion. I posted mine. It doesn't really matter what we think. What matters is what the OP & his/her spouse/co-parent decides to do. That's all that matters. So the OP is looking for some validation that he/she isn't being a horrible parent by replacing a tadpole in order to avoid telling the kid that the tadpole died. BIG DEAL! It is not an existential crisis.