So... in my desire to teach my kids how to love and take care of others I decided that hamsters would be the way to go.
Before I go on... anyone interested in a baby hamster???
It was one of those quick decisions that I often make, that makes life interesting, and yet at the same time, potentially chaotic.
If you're an action type person, or more easily understood, "a gedder done" type person you will so relate to what I'm about to share with you.
We ended up at a petstore that night and checked out the cute dwarf hamsters. We already had a cage, so $12 a hamster was not bothering me. The problem was, that 2 of my boys wanted their own hamsters. The salesman convinced us that the hamsters we picked out were both females. You know where I'm going with this, right??? Well one was a male and one was a female... and not too far down the road there were 5 more hamsters. I don't claim to understand everything about hamster relations, but I did have a feeling that this wasn't going to go as well as I had first hoped.
We decided to leave them in the same cage until we could figure out what to do. The plan was to give the babies away as soon as they were weened. Things were going just splendid, until we came home afterschool one day and noticed a couple of babies missing and fur scattered around the cage. Well we took the dad out and left the mom with the 3 babies that were still alive.
This led to another great lesson to teach my kids, that went way beyond the scope of simply teaching them how to care for other living things. I now had to teach them about life and death. The part that they just couldn't get over is that the dad would eat the babies. My older son who is a discovery channel guru explained exactly why this happens. He did way better than I could have, and was so thankful that he did. But the bigger question that came next was unexpected. My middle son just simply asked, "why would their dad do that? doesn't he love them? is he just a bad hamster?"
Unfortunately, I had to drop them off at their dad's house and we did not get to finish the conversation. Which I am thankful for... cause I think I need a little more time to think about that answer?
I have a feeling that it may lead to even deeper questions for a single mom that can't be easily dismissed or quickly answered.
