Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

To think she should have let them hold the guinea pigs?

62 replies

YouMiserableCow · 21/09/2014 19:40

Earlier today me and my two DC's (aged 6 and 8) went to visit a friend of mine. We haven't actually known each other for that long and this was the first time we had visited her house. My friend also has an 18 year old daughter who still lives at home.

After an hour or so my DC were beginning to get reckless so my friend told them that her daughter would be in soon and they could go see and have a play with her daughter's two guinea pigs which my DC got very excited about.

However when her DD did come home, looking pissed off and in a bad mood anyway, she said "no" to letting them hold her guinea pigs as she didn't know them!

My children are very gentle and were looking forward to seeing them only to be let down.

AIBU to think she could have at least let them have a quick cuddle? My DC love animals but haven't got any pets of their own.

OP posts:

Bulbasaur · 22/09/2014 18:59

My friend has worked at a pet store where they sell small animals, and they do not let small children hold the animals because they have caused injuries and killed them. It's not deliberate, but some kids don't know their own strength and squeeze too hard or they lack coordination and drop them.

Its not malicious, but it happens.

The friend shouldn't have spoken for DD. But I do the DD could have at least been polite when saying no.

hiccupgirl · 22/09/2014 19:15

YABU from me too.

Your friend shouldn't have promised your kids could do anything with someone else's pets and guinea pigs are not toys and can bite hard if scared.

And as much as your DCS love animals if they're not used to having pets and handling them, they are more likely to be too rough with them.

rumbleinthrjungle · 22/09/2014 19:44

Your friend was a bit assuming to expect that her adult daughter would be prepared to drop everything to entertain the kids of her mother's guest, and to involve her pets in the entertainment, expecting her to put them in the hands of children she doesn't know. She had every right to not be having a great day or to put what your children wanted at the top of her priority list, and to put her animals first.

Another vote for animals are not toys and definitely shouldn't be used as toys to entertain kids in reckless (or was that an autocorrect of restless?), excited moods.

I was in the garden centre recently (which is dog friendly) with my dog, and heard a parent say to a tantrumming toddler while pointing to my dog without the slightest inquiry to me first, "If you stop screaming you can cuddle the doggy".

No the child flipping well couldn't. My dog is well behaved but was wary with the noise and crowds and is equally wary of unfamiliar small children because they grab and squeal. The parent got quite shirty that their random impulse to manage their child's behaviour by letting their little darling 'have a go' with my dog was thwarted.

NameChangerNewDanger · 22/09/2014 19:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

alemci · 22/09/2014 20:04

what a shame, pity your friend wouldn't show the pigs to your dc. my dd was 6 when we first got gps.

alemci · 22/09/2014 20:10

I think as long as someone supervised the dc then it should have been ok.

blanklook · 22/09/2014 20:10

Guinea-pigs are live animals, not soft toys to be cuddled by random visitors.

No-one would have got near one of ours, he bit anything that moved
It's not common to have a biter, the vet said he was only the third biting guinea that he'd encountered in his career.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 22/09/2014 20:20

I have guineas, I would not be happy if DH offered the pigs to a strange child to cuddle.

My NDN little grandson was with my NDN chatting to us as I cleaned out the Pighouse (he was 3yo) and I held the pigs and let him stroke them but he was very calm and the pigs were held by me. My decision.

Guineas are brilliant pets but the are fragile, And unpredictable.
Ours aren't bitey but they are sharp toothed rodents and though DD and I accept this, a child who isn't used to them might view a gnaw as a bite.

cherrybombxo · 22/09/2014 20:31

rumble oh my word! how rude! Hell mend anyone who did that with my dog, he bloody hates small children...

DrCarolineTodd · 22/09/2014 21:20

YABVU. Pets are not toys and overexcited children will scare guinea pigs.

Flyawaylittlebutterfly · 22/09/2014 22:17

Over excited 'reckless' children aren't going to look very gentle and trustworthy around vulnerable animals to a stranger. Your kids should be able to behave themselves in other peoples homes at their age, the fact that they can't suggests your rather deluded about them. Yabvvvu.

Numanoid · 23/09/2014 11:46

Sorry, but they should be able to behave without the guinea pigs being used as a bargaining chip. I would have reacted the same I'm afraid, guinea pigs are prey animals so naturally wary of people, and especially afraid of people they don't know. I wouldn't have had a problem with them looking at or stroking the pigs (if they weren't hiding!).

Flip

1 2 3