But the crab died!
We watched Planet Earth II on Monday afternoon together; Naomi, Rocco and I snuggled on the sofa ready to enjoy the BBC's finest work, with David Attenborough.
We hadn't thought too much about vetting the program for Rocco, who is 3. We probably should have but then I'm not sure we could have predicted what would upset him.
Poor fella.
During the program, there was a segment on crabs living on Christmas island in the Indian Ocean. They are threatened by the invasion of non-native ants which are causing the death of thousands of crabs. The short section involved scenes of a crab dying due to the ants attacking it.
The image of the crab dying was a bit too much for Rocco. What followed was around 45 minutes of grieving for the deceased crab. He wanted to rewatch the event, which we did twice, explaining what had happened to him, still sobbing and cries of "But the crab died!". We moved away from the television and took out his excellent Picturepedia, opening the page on crabs, talking about all the different types of crab - still screams of "The crab died!". Naomi took out the crayons and paper, drawing the crab (and the ants, on request) and they coloured the crab in together, "But he died!". And I fetched the crab shell from the bathroom to explain how this crab had once also lived and died, "But the crab died!". We talked about life and death and crabs for quite some time and eventually the sadness left him, as did our internal fits of hysteric laughter. It was quite an event!
Props for the "crabs die" therapy session.
I don't think we'll be watching the next episode together.