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Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Mummy, can I have a pet?

My heart skipped a beat when mimi posed me this question. Then she went on and on about a Stanley and the pets he had. God knows who is Stanley but my guess is that he's a cartoon character either on NickJr or Disney channel.

Personally, I am not too fond of animals. Cute and nice to play with but too much trouble to care for. And when kids want pets, it almost always ends up where the moms have to step in and take care of the pets.

But not wanting to be horrible mom, I asked "What kind of pet do you want?"
mimi: "hmmmm .... aaahhh .... can I have a rabbit?"
me: "WHHHHHHAAAATTTT! no rabbits!" (that was in my head, ok)
me: "Are sure you want to keep rabbits? Their poop stinks you know and when you keep pets you have to feed and clean them. I'll take you to the pet store and you go smell the rabbit's poop, if you think you can handle it then I'll get the rabbit for you."
mimi: "okay"
me: "There are other pets you know, fish, tortoise and ... fish ... and tortoise .. or birds" (these are the only pets I could handle, no hamsters or rabbits, or cat please!)
mimi: "hmm .. if the rabbit's poop is too smelly, I think I'll have fish then"

phewww ...

Do your kids have pets? And what are the easiest pets to care for? All suggestions are welcome on what pet to get for my daughter :)

6 comments:

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

hi workingmom,

I went thru the same thing a few months back. :) (even blogged about it in my May06 archive) Also, influenced by the little boy Stanley. LOL

I thought fish was the easiest and most suitable 'first time' pet for a 4yo. But after one month it just died! My lil girl was so shattered, she never asked for a replacement since.

me said...

Ha .. ha .. this Stanley boy sure is influencial.

Oh your poor daughter ... my sis-in-law told me that gold fish dies easily. Was hers a gold fish?

The Hand That Holds The Quill... said...

nope, hers was a 'rainbow' fish (her favourite colors are either rainbow, pink or purple) a.k.a. fighting fish...:)

me said...

Thank god I did not get Mimi the rainbow fish, I was thinking it was an easy fish for a 5yo to take care ...

Recently, we went to the pet shop .. she was of two minds .. one part wanted the rabbit .. esp when there was this cute white baby rabbit with black ears and eyes and the other part says to listen to mummy, I guess.
For fish, she liked the gold fish and my sis-in-law was promoting the turtles, said they are the easiest to care for .. no need to buy the oxygen thingy, eats very little, can be taken out to hold and touch unlike fish and all the good points which is sounding very good to me. Mimi was getting excited as well :) And suddenly I heard my hubby asked mimi "Are you sure you don't want the rabbit, they are soo cute." Darn! Felt like shooting his head off. My sis-in-law was good though. Kept on persuading Mimi to get the turtles and pointing out the rabbit's poop and finally, we got her a pair of turtles. All left the petshop happy.

Anonymous said...

wonderful :)
let me know if it turns out to be really easy to take care of. Sophia wouldnt mind the turtles either. I je yg geli sket. lol She also loves frogs! can u imagine?! urgh...

But really, if turtles work out well for Mimi, then maybe we'll get them for Sophia. I don't actually hvta touch them, so wadaheck! ;)

me said...

Turtles are definitely easy to care for. Feed 1-2 times per day and change water daily. Mimi is in charge of feeding them and I will help her change the water. I am showing her how to change the water so that she could change it herself. At first, mimi was also "geli" of holding the turtles but she overcame her "geli-ness" and can hold them and play with them.

But since I started sending her to preschool last week, she is playing less with her turtle ( and yup, not turtles anymore, thanks to daddy, one turtle, which she'd named biggy is gone forever in JB, to think I brought the turtle so far and to lose it ... poor biggy )

Back to the other turtle, smally. Now I have to remind her everyday to feed smally. I threatened to give smally away yesterday, then only I can see her playing with smally again. She's asking for replacement for biggy which I told her will depend on her taking care of smally without any prompting from me.

I would definitely recommend turtles for Sophia. Easy and very low maintenance pet. But how in the world did Sophia get hook up on frogs? She must be one brave girl! ;)