Daisy’s short visit

I was challenged earlier in the week when I arrived at kinder pick up on Thursday.  The fill in teacher had brought in snails for everyone to draw and to plonk onto black card to watch the trails.  Cute (ish).  But when I arrived, it was evident we had someone who was OBSESSED with them.  She had been drawing them all morning and playing with them constantly.  She had even built a house (weetbix box) complete with grass and a lovely lace bed.  “Can I take one home mum?”  My immediate reaction was an understanding and sympathetic “no - we can get one from the garden if we really want to”.  We “relocate” stacks and they eat our veges - I had never entertained a snail for a pet.  Well, I have never seen anyone so sad.  She was devasted - she knew all about how to look after them: to give them grass or white paper to eat; and to flick water on them to keep them moist.  When the tears started, I reconsidered.  Do I give in to the tears, what’s wrong with a snail, why can’t she just have one, who am i to determine what is considered a pet? etc etc.  Anyway, Daisy the baby snail came home with us.  She had the big responsibility now of a pet and she was loving it.  We took Daisy to creche the next day to show her friends there.  When I arrived for creche pick up - there was a sad story waiting.  One of the 3 year olds at creche had stolen Daisy from her weetbix house in Dusty’s locker and stepped on that sad snail several times.  Dusty walked in just as it was happening.  My heart sank.  Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of Daisy, I was so sad someone so little could be sooo mean. 

So the search is on for a pet.  Not sure if the timing’s right for a dog but we are on the hunt for something to scratch that itch as it were.  And we have been having lots of discussions about how not to be mean and how to be respectful of other people’s things. And what we do when people do mean things to us.