More Than an Insect

    I was relieved I wasn’t talking face to face with my friend as she told me about her daughter’s favorite pet.  It seems her young daughter’s guinea pig injured its eye.  She was planning on taking the little thing to the vet later in the afternoon.  She was nearly beside herself with worry that the vet wouldn’t be able to help her daughter’s beloved creature.  I admit I was a little bewildered at her concern over a rodent.  Little did I know that only hours later I would completely understand.

     Not long after I hung up the phone with my friend, my own daughter happened across a ladybug.  She asked me if she could keep it.  I said that she could keep it for a while.  She grew more excited by the minute as I helped her find a home for the ladybug.  After settling on a small plastic bowl covered with a carefully colored piece of paper, she was set.  She used a rubber band to hold the paper in place and I poked a few holes at her request, so that the little thing could breathe.

    She spent most of the day holding the bowl and gazing at the ladybug.  I recognized a learning opportunity and searched for the book I remembered we had on ladybug life cycles (What can I say, I have a bit of a book- buying problem.).  We read the book together before she went to sleep.  I watched her sweet eyes light up as I read that the average life span for a ladybug is one year (otherwise known as forever to a child).  Those same eyes filled with tears as I had to explain to her that there was no way her ladybug would live that long given its current living quarters.  She realized that she would either have to soon let the ladybug go or wake up to find it dead one day.  My heart broke.

     I couldn’t help but remember my conversation with my friend earlier in the day.  I suddenly understood how she could be so worried about the fate of a guinea pig.  I hugged my daughter and fought back tears of my own as I realized this was but the beginning of heartbreaks she would endure in this less-than-perfect world.

     I don’t know that I’ve ever been more grateful for comic relief as I was when I asked my crying daughter what she had named her ladybug.  “Butterfly,” she seriously answered.  I had to smile as I kissed her cheek and wished her a good night.  I spent the rest of the night wondering how to best handle my girl’s tender heart.  I also wondered if it would be okay not to let her catch any lightening bugs this summer.  I don’t know that my heart can handle it.

     For real information on dealing with a kids and the loss of a pet, click here for a an article at KCParent.com