I have posted about this before but it's ongoing and significant at the moment due to a family event.
My DM has three sisters. We have always been quite an involved family and my DD loves her great aunts, one in particular who had until the incident described always given her a lot of playful attention.
18 months ago, at a family party at that particular aunt's home, her very spoilt dog tried to bite my cousin's DD, then aged two, in the face. Luckily she jumped back and the dog missed her. Despite my cousin's insistence that her DD had simply been walking past it was dismissed by my aunt as her having provoked him and him reacting . Regardless, my view is that the dog can't be trusted around children. I suspect it was partly disgruntled because family mebers who had been drinking had been using the dog's squeaky toys to amuse my cousin's baby.
I really feel that if a dog has form for biting, it can't be trusted around children at all. The following week I called ahead of another celebration at the same house to ask whether my aunt would mind closing the dog away. She was a bit snotty about it but replied that of course he would. We went along and the dog, plus other guests' dogs were lose. Another aunt (also a dog lover) seemed to be making a point of playing with the baby at floor level, with the dogs jumping around him.
The incident really opened my eyes to the risks of any dog being unrestrained around small children and I made the decision we simply couldn't risk visits any more, including the other aunt who has two dogs running freely and insists on feeding my DCs crap crisps and biscuits while they are around. She has refused point blank to do anything to restrain her dogs, who are even allowed on the dinner table and fed there by the family.
To cut a long story short this has led to our exclusion from family events. There was another big one last night at the house with the snappy dog. However my cousin took her DCs along and doesn't seem as concerned about the risk as I do. This makes me question myself. AIBU? Should I let it drop now?
My feeling is that the risk is still as great as it was 18 months ago and that when adults are drinking and going off to play with the kids without paying full attention, it's not safe.
I also feel that given our exclusion during a tough year (my DM has advanced cancer) I am ready to cut ties.
But am I overreacting?
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AIBU?
Am I going too far re snappy dog?
57 replies
LapsedTwentysomething · 31/08/2014 08:29
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MrsWolowitz ·
31/08/2014 08:38
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MrsWolowitz ·
31/08/2014 08:39
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MrsCumbersnatch ·
31/08/2014 08:42
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