We witnessed a bird fly into the window this morning. The boys then found the dead bird outside the window. This prompted a very long, very confusing discussion about death. Here are the highlights:
“Can we get the bird and bring him inside?”
“Did he hurt his little brain and get dead?”
“Maybe we can put a Band-Aid on his wing and he will fly away.”
“If he is dead, we better check on him every day to make sure he is still dead.”
“Did he go to heaven to be with Jesus?”
“Jesus is making a home for us in heaven. Can we go there now?”
“Did the bird die like Grandma?”
“That little bird was flying home to his family and then he got dead by our window.”
“If we make him all better, can he live with us?”
So now I need to decide what to do. Obviously we will need to move the bird, as they have tried to sneak outside to get it twice today. Do I dispose of it? Or do we have a bird funeral? I don’t know. They boys are getting older and I really should figure out a consistent and meaningful way to address this.
When do parents finally grow up and get all the answers? Because I need that to happen already.