Today’s Reddit Question Is How Would You React If Your Four-Year-Old Killed A Dog

shutterstock_155049833Man oh man this right here is a doozy courtesy of Reddit. Because I’m a professional mom and mommy blogger person I have my own opinions on this whole situation, and I am probably right (Yeah, you know me), but you know I’m dying to hear what you guys think so let’s get on with it. The father writes on Reddit:

For context: My(31M) ex(28F) and I have been split up for 2 years. She took our son and lives with her parents 3 hours away from me, so for the last 2 years, I’ve only gotten to see my boy once every other weekend. My car died about 2 months ago, so I haven’t been able to make the trip to pick him up since.

 

OK so, 31-year-old guy split up from his 28-year-old partner for about two years, and he hasn’t been able to spend much time with his son.

Fast forward to yesterday. I get a call from my ex and she says “Our son killed the dog.” Naturally, I’m appalled. Apparently, she’s been letting him take the dog for walks by himself (They live in the middle of nowhere so it’s moderately safe. I’ve expressed before that I don’t think it’s a good idea.) and yesterday, he tied the (pug) dog’s leash up on a fence post just high enough that the dog couldn’t breathe. I guess he came in after watching the dog strangle and said “Henry’s hurt, his tongue is out.” Henry was gone before anyone could get there in time.

This is right where I get twitchy. I have kids who range in ages from nine years to 17 years. I don’t let any of them walk our dog, a rambunctious Boston Terrier alone, except my teenager. We live in a very safe neighborhood with sidewalks and not a lot of street traffic and I still don’t let my kids walk the dog alone. They can do it in the fenced backyard, but I won’t even let them walk him down the street. Our dog freaks when he sees other dogs, he chases squirrels and could easily pull my younger kids into traffic, and it’s just too risky for me to feel okay with. I cannot imagine letting a FOUR-YEAR-OLD walk a dog alone, even if you do live in a remote area. The dad continues:

I wasn’t there, so I have no idea if this was an accident, or if he tried to hurt the dog on purpose… I’m thinking he may be emotionally frustrated because we haven’t seen each other in a couple of months?

If you guys were in my position, what would you do??

Oh man, now the poor dog is dead and I’m sure the little kid feels awful and there is nothing you can technically do, except not let your kid walk the dog alone especially at such a young age. And this dad needs to stop blaming himself.

It’s weird that I feel this way because I’m sure growing up back in the day in the way way back in the day, having a dog meant it was the kid’s responsibility to walk them, even if they were just past toddler stage. I’m sure at age four a lot of kids were plowing fields and hunting and you know, getting factory jobs to support their families but I’m too much of a wuss to let my nine-year-old walk our dog alone. Plus, one time I let her walk our dog just down our street and some weird old guy walking some foofoo dog yelled at her “Keep your dog away from my dog” and she came home all freaked out and upset so I don’t even let her do it on our cul-de-sac.

In my opinion, four-years-old is just too young to be left alone to handle a dog. Poor Henry, RIP Dog.

(Image:  Dancestrokes/shutterstock)

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