PLEASE HELP my dd let my aunties hamster out now its dead!!

[mad4girls]

i am tearing my hair out after what happened yesterday

my grandma is hamster sitting for my aunty they left it there thursday night we went for tea yesterday so they could see it and take it some food we were only there an hour and they were compleatly besotted

anyway my grandad just got let out of hospital and gran feeling unwell i offered to go to the chemist (15mins walk) to get my grandads prescription

i come back to find chaos as youngest dd (4) has let it out the cage its ran behind a cupboard my gran said she repeatedly told dd to close the lid but kept opening it again when she went to the loo she came down to this

anyway i get in and can see the hamster behind the cupboard and pull the cupboard away from the wall the hamster makes no attempt to run so i scooped it up to find it floppy and lifeless (which i pressume it to be dead)

the kids say she took it out which my gran heard dd (7) telling her not too and that it got off the table made a squeaking noise and ran for the corner i found it in

how do u think it died do u think its heart gave out maybe i dont know but its haunting my dreams this happened yesterday cant stop thinking about its lifless body in my hand.

to make matters worse i have to live with this for nearly 3 weeks when my aunty gets back before i can tell her

also i was so mad at dd 4 that i took her sticker she got from school (she got it that day in assembly for kindness to others) and i threw it in the bin i was just so angry that she wouldnt do as she was told #

she just wont listen before xmas she ran out in to a v busy road in front of 2 dbl decker buses unscathed giving me heart failure
and in september because she wouldnt stay down stairs while i was having a bath she fell into a boiling hot bath and scalded her face which led to 6 weeks of going to the burns unit which fortunately didnt scar

now i feel terible guilt for the hamster and for my daughter for taking her prized sticker she was so proud of it and now i feel awful

pleeeeseee if anyone could offer words of advice im in desperate need

thanx

Poor you.
Its not much help but all i can say is be honest.Its life and worse things could have happened (like the awful bath incident )
My neighbour overfed my fish and he died.I felt more concerned about my poor neighbour feeling bad than anything else, so im sure your aunty will be understanding. I would imagine shed be as concerned for you and your poor dd`s reaction to a dead hamster. Is your dd ok ? She must have been very upset.
Dont understand the bit about not staying downstairs tho while you took a bath-how did she scald herself if you were in the bath or have i read it wrong ?
Check hamster is really dead tho -someone once told me to leave them somewhere warm for a few hours as they can hibernate ?

o god, what a nightmare

sit down with as stiff drink and breathe deeply.

i'm not sure but i'm sure i remember being told small rodents can die of fright if they're terrified. Personally i think you were right to punish her, although taking away a reward already earned probably wasn't the best way lord knows we all act rashly when we're mad.

i think you should sit down and have a big talk about 'actions have consequences', i know she's young but she does need to understand that if she doesn't do as she's told very bad things can happen and the bit about running front of the buses had me feeling absolutely sick imagining how frightened you must have been for her.

I wouldn't worry, it's only a hamster, sorry, but they don't live that long anyway. Your aunty will be ok I'm sure

4yos don't listen, that's normal, you need to make sure she can't run in front of a bus. And if that means holding her hand/reins/whatever then you have to do it

General view on stickers is that you shouldn't take them away because bad behaviour doesn't cancel out good behaviour and I agree with that. So in your position I'd apologise about the sticker and get her a replacement one

I don't get the bath thing, how ever did she fall in?