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Original poster

What's the ettiquette when someone puts a rat on your baby daughter?

123 replies

DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 13:35

Just wondering because I urned my back for 5 seconds to see what DSs were up to in the Mini Zoo at their school fete, turned back and one of the women running the zoo had put a rat on BabyDragon in her pushchair.

It wasn't even an attractive rat but a grey/brown one which you wouldn't be surprised to see rummaging about in your bin.

I kind of smiled indulgently as BabyDragon squeezed it in her pudgy little hands but inside was screaming "get that filthy vermin off my daughter!"

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Soapythelistmaker · 02/12/2006 13:38

I'm not at all freaked by rodents - but I would have been rather unhappy had someone else put one any where near my DCs without my permission

And your DD is still only little (year or so old is she not?) so would have been even more freaked.

I am OTOH phobic about spiders and if any one put one anywhere near my DCs when I was there I would freak beyond freakdom!

In fact when she was in reception, DD handled a tarantula, and I found it very hard to get my head round it!

swift1 · 02/12/2006 13:38

I wouldve screamed exactly that and wacked it off!

MKGnearlyimmaculateconception · 02/12/2006 13:39

If it was a household pet rat, I wouldn't mind, because you know where they have been. A random rat at a zoo, I would be livid.

I can't believe they didn't ask your permission first.

Cappuccino · 02/12/2006 13:40

actually there was something on some Child of Our Time type programme showing that kids aren't necessarily freaked by stuff like rats and snakes unless their parents are

so if you had screamed then probably it would have led to a lifelong fear of rats for her

mind you, I would have legged it

edam · 02/12/2006 13:42

I would have been furious but restrained myself from screaming to avoid upsetting my baby. It's a bugger because the stupid rat-flinging freak gets away with it precisely because you can't cause a scene.

OTOH ds went to a school fete where a man was showing exotic pets, culminating in a python. Loads of children volunteered to handle the python - so many that a queue would have been impossible, So he made them all lie down on the floor and let the snake wriggle across their tummies. I asked ds how it felt and he said 'fat'. I was dying to say 'not half as fat as it would have been if he hadn't fed it just before pulling that stunt' - the thing looked more than capable of swallowing a three year old!

Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 13:43

If they'd put the bloody tarantula on her I would have run screaming from the room and left her there!

Rats/mice I don't have a problem with as such, hence I just smiled indulgently. I would have minded lass had it been a nice posh pedigree rat (there was a very pretty white and beige one there. Am I a rat snob?) but no, it was a vermin looking rate which was kind of freaky to see on my 10 month old DD.

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Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 13:44

I kept BabyDragon well away from the large python - she would have made the perfect snack!

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PinkTinsel · 02/12/2006 13:46

would probably have been the one encouraging it tbh

FLAMEinEckItsYuleAgain · 02/12/2006 13:48

What happened to a dragon is for life and not for name changing?? (I like the name though... you still not really here?)

Back to the topic at hand though.. I've had pet rats (the pedigree looking ones I might add), but I would be seriously p*ssed off if someone stuck a rat on Flameboy (and a tad concerned for the rat's safety - he would have been sucked within seconds).

Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 13:49

I only change for Christmas Since rats are technically edible, it was pretty safe with BabyDragon.

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Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 13:50

An no, I'm not really here. Have weaned myself off to a more acceptable level.

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FLAMEinEckItsYuleAgain · 02/12/2006 13:50

pmsl still being nice and co-operative with weaning then

lockets · 02/12/2006 13:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

PinkTinsel · 02/12/2006 13:50

was she amused by it? my dd at that age would have gotton so excited she'd have ripped the poor creature in 2!

FLAMEinEckItsYuleAgain · 02/12/2006 13:51

I really need to do that

whensantagotstuckupAITCHimney · 02/12/2006 13:54

i think it's outrageously presumptuous but i would probably have done the same thing as you - despite the fact that my every sinew would have strained to flick the rodent off the baby in the hope that it would land teeth-first on the woman's neck.

Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 13:54

DD didn't mind. I was a little worried it might bite her when she squeezed it though - she's not the most gentle of children! She kind of tucked it under her arm like a bear at one point.

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whensantagotstuckupAITCHimney · 02/12/2006 14:01

eeeeuw. they've not got sphincters, you know...

Soapythelistmaker · 02/12/2006 14:05

PMSL - at dragon not name changing - funniest thing I have read in a long time

Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 14:06

Her hands were, thankfully, on top of the rat so away from its ar$e but still, I'm feeling (pardon the pun) rather cr*p.

Ah well, she's probably ingested her fair share of mouse poo from our earlier infestation anyway. And she's not a Precious First Born.

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Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 14:06

I'm deeply deeply hurt, Soapy. It's not like I've got 1001 aliases on my nickname history or anything...

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lionheart · 02/12/2006 18:08

The thing about rats is that they pee almost constantly, iirc.

Original poster
DoesntChristmasDragOn · 02/12/2006 18:10

She wasn't wet though. She'd have been wet if it had peed on her surely? Thank heavens she's not a Precious First Born, I would be panicing.

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mousiemousie · 02/12/2006 18:15

MAking a fuss once the deed was done might have freaked out babydragon but this was bang out of order.

Rats are disgusting. If it was a brown one I would have had hysterics and clocked the woman.

Twiglett · 02/12/2006 18:16

I would only have been bothered if it was one of those feckin' ugly nekkid rats

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