A 28-year-old woman has had her pet rabbit for the last 6 years, and her mom gifted her the rabbit the day she graduated from college.
She had always dreamed of having a pet of her own, so her rabbit is incredibly special to her. She recently got married to her 30-year-old husband, and he is already a dad to a 12-year-old girl.
Her husband ended up getting full custody because his ex was charged with neglecting their daughter.
She admits that she has tried her hardest to be like a mom to her husband’s daughter, even before she came to live with them.
She has even saved up money every single month for this little girl’s college education, and she made the choice to no longer have children of her own so that she never ends up feeling neglected.
She also went so far as to officially adopt her husband’s daughter, and she clears her schedule to she can go to all the meetings at her school.
She truly has gone above and beyond to make this 12-year-old feel welcome, accepted, and like she’s a part of their family.
Back to the rabbit…she never lets her husband’s daughter hold the rabbit since they are highly sensitive and get upset easily by kids due to how high energy they are.
She also pointed out that kids can easily do something to hurt a rabbit without even knowing, and so she keeps her rabbit in a different room with lots of toys to alleviate boredom.
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Her rabbit’s room has a number-style lock on the door, so nobody can enter without knowing the passcode, and their daughter does not have that number to get in.
“I have specifically told my husband not to let her into the room without my permission,” she said about their daughter.
“He still let her into the room to play with my rabbit when I had gone to work. My rabbit was terrified due to her rough handling and scratched her arms.”
“I came home to find my husband furious with me. I told him this would not have happened if he hadn’t let her in despite my warning.”
She then explained that the scratches her daughter got were not that bad and did not draw blood.
“He was not ready to listen and asked me to rehome my rabbit,” she continued. “I refused to do so and said he would just have to deal with our daughter not being allowed to play with the rabbit.”
Well, that did not go over well with her husband, who accused her of being the worst and not giving a crap about their daughter.
She refused to rehome her rabbit, and now her husband hasn’t spoken to her for an entire week.
Here’s what the internet had to say.
“Yeah, if my 3yo can learn how to be safe with a kitten, a 12yo can learn to be safe with a rabbit. In fact, I once worked with a 10yo who raised show rabbits – he was a cool kid.”
“I am concerned your husband might rehome or harm the rabbit behind your back…”
“Errrmm…call me crazy…but once we’re in the territory of being married to somebody we can’t trust to a) not steal our property, b) not harm another living, sentient being without installing a new fancy lock… Aren’t we quite a ways offshore??”
“It’s not unreasonable to want safety for both your daughter and your pet. Your husband was unreasonable to introduce the two of them in a way that wasn’t safe.”
“You’re a little unreasonable for not introducing the two of them in a way that was safe (though you may have been intending to do that just not yet).”
“I had pet rabbits from the age of 8, and I never mishandled, hurt, or killed any of the pets I’ve ever had.”
“My parents took the time to educate me on how to care for my pets and taught me how to handle and hold them.”
“Currently, my three-year-old nieces are learning how to handle their pet gerbil. Kids are absolutely able to understand being gentle and caring of small animals.”
She then provided an update on how she plans to handle everything.
“I will be teaching my daughter to handle my rabbit carefully in the future,” she said.
“However, I will also be changing the lock on the door because I no longer trust my husband with the responsibility of supervising our daughter and my rabbit.”
“Also I’m absolutely not mad at my daughter because she was excited about a pet just like any other kid would be at her age and it was my responsibility to teach her the right way to go about it.”
You can read the rest of what the internet had to say to her here.