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My son put his cat in the dryer, what's the punishment?

Stpma's picture

Submitted by Stpma on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 10:31pm

:jawdrop: I think she was in there at least 5 min. He thought it was funny that she was panting like a dog. He said she was dirty so he put her in there to get her clean. I feel so horrible, I wanna cry. I'm afraid she's gonna have brain damage or something. How do I make sure my 3yo gets the seriousness of this? I sent him to his room and he was not allowed out the rest of the night. Dh and I both talked to him. OMG!!! I hope she's okay...

Comments

Tx mommy of 3's picture

Submitted by Tx mommy of 3 on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 10:39pm

At least the cat is still alive!! When I was little our cat fell asleep in the dryer & no one knew... I guess you know how that ended. Your son is 3. I have little ones too. My middle is almost 4 and he would've done that too! From his perspective he was doing a good thing. Maybe I'm wrong but at 3 they are stillearning boundaries, not a baby but not a 'big kid'. I think you punished him already now just keep an eye on him when he is playing with the cat!

alwaysme's picture

Submitted by alwaysme on Tue, 09/07/2010 - 10:48pm

Gee, i dont know how you could punish a child that age when they dont really comprehend that what they were doing was hurting the cat. The only thing you can do is in the best possible way to get your son to relate to something similar that has hurt him. Like "remember when your burnt your hand/scrapped your knee (whatever) well thats how it feels for the cat, they get hurt too"

alwaysme's picture

Submitted by alwaysme on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 12:12am

i thought it was kinda cute too, but i didnt want to seem sadistic in saying that... }:) i could just imagine poor pus pus jumping around in there. not that i condone that sort of thing of course. i love animals Biggrin

mom2five's picture

Submitted by mom2five on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 5:57am

Can you let him feel the dryer after it has been running for a while? Ours gets pretty warm on the outside. That might make him understand that it is hot and will burn the kitty.

starfish's picture

Submitted by starfish on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 6:01am

i would have beat the shit out of my kid...so he would associate and ass whipping with hurting the kitty!

Most Evil's picture

Submitted by Most Evil on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 6:02am

My friend's cat died that way, after she climbed in and my friend wasn't aware. That is a horrible way to die for the kitty.

I would watch son closely or either no longer have any pets.

SteppingUp's picture

Submitted by SteppingUp on Wed, 09/08/2010 - 8:35am

Ohhh your poor little kitty!! I agree that you've already punished him, and that you definitely need to find some way to relate how badly the kitty could have been injured to something that could happen to him. I just think about how the kitty was tumbling around in there...could have broken bones and brain damage and all kinds of nasty things. I also agree that you should show him how hot it gets in the dryer. AND that he needs more explanations of household things...kids just try their best to mimic adults and we sometimes forget to explain things further to them.

We were at a lake swimming and my SS came running out of the water panicking and I saw him peeing down his leg. We were on a beach with other people and my first reaction was just to tell him to go back into the water -- I knew he wouldn't be able to hold it to make the trip to the bathroom. I didn't expect him to walk to the water's edge and pull down his pants in front of everyone and pee! Smile

Also, our dog had one of his stuffed animals, and in the meantime I had dirty dishes soaking in the sink -- he put the stuffed animal in the sink to clean it, too. Smile