Lemme set up the scenario and then I need advice: we have a betta fish that I feed and take care of yet my 16 yr old aspie son comes to look at it daily. It’s very old now and doesn’t swim much. I asked him this AM how to handle when it dies - to go get one just like it, just to tell him it died (which will cause a major meltdown and he’ll be mad as hell for hrs) or what. When fish die, he wants me to take a picture of it. I get hanging on to familiar things and it’s sad when pets die, but should we just not have a fish? The last time this happened (and it’s been a few yrs, then fish die and replaced with another) he was fine with it - we took a pic, went to pet store and he picked out another. But now that he’s older, he gets more emotional about it. Please please help me understand the symbolism of the fish and what I should do when it does happen to kick the bucket.

Posted by Togsmom at 2022-12-15 17:36:09 UTC