A New Meaning to Fish on Friday

March 23, 2010

A New Meaning to Fish on Friday

When my son graduated from Kindergarten his teacher gave him (and all the children) a betta fish. My son named him Young and we set him up on my kitchen counter top.

At the time, I worried that Young might not make it through the night let alone week after week, month after month, year after year. Care and feeding of Young fell to yours truly, me. Sometimes I did better than others - like the time we went away to Disney and halfway through the trip I realized I had forgotten to put a feeder in his tank. Thankfully, Young survived that week. He was a hearty fellow and lived an exceptionally long life for a Betta fish. Considering my son is now close to finishing 3rd grade - that is 3 years not counting the fact that Bettas are often a good year old when they hit the pet shops.

Tonight when I changed Young's water - it wasn't good. Young looked half dead. I changed his water and sadly Young passed. It was in this moment of horror that I made the executive decision to manage death in my family. I took Young's death into my own hands. I didn't tell the children.

This past year they had to experience Grandpa passing and just recently the family dog died. My son has autism and he doesn't understand death or heaven. The questions are never-ending and he just doesn't seem to 'get it'. Now the fish died. I decided it would just be too much to pile on one more sad thing for the kids. I found the closest replacement and when the kids were in the other room I quickly cleaned the tank, flushed Young, and put a Young look-alike into the tank.

I updated Facebook with my Android phone with a quick RIP message to honor the kindergarten fish and came into the living room to find my 5 year old serving Fish and Chips in my Cafe World app. "Mama I shared the chef special so everyone can eat Fish on Friday". If only she knew what I had just done. And oh, the irony of back to back newsfeed posts about flushing the family fish and then serving Fish and Chips. I am not sure if that is horrible, funny, or horribly funny.

Yes, we shall have fish on Friday, indeed.

New Jersey Moms Blog post by MaryTara. MT blogs her adventures in parenting two beautiful children on the Jersey Shore, life with autism & without it, the gluten & casein free diet, and vaccination choice issues at The Bon Bon Gazette and raising a child with amblyopia at Adventures in Amblyopia.