Feeding the animals

Today we went to a “zoo” with my family.  Vivian was in her stroller and my grandma in a wheelchair.  It was so great to see the joy in grandma’s eyes, especially because part of me really thinks she thought she was in Africa, like we told her every time she asked (she has dementia).  Unfortunately, Vivian couldn’t have cared less that she was at the zoo.  She doesn’t know any different.  We pointed out different animals and colors, but we enjoyed it more than she did.
After we completed our walk around, we were standing around a pen with a few goats and piglets.  Dave, Vivian and I were standing separate from the rest of my family.  On the other side of us, there was a cute little girl that was having a blast feeding the piglets.  After a little while, her mom asked me if my daughter wanted some of their food to feed the animals.  Me: speechless.  I literally got heart palpitations.  How do I answer this?  It was a simple question with a very complicated answer.  I answered “She’s… Uh… she… Uh… She can’t feed the animals.”  I couldn’t even look her in the eyes.  Did she think I’m a mean mom and simply wouldn’t let my daughter feed the animals?  Vivian’s pants happened to be down past her butt, so she couldn’t see her leg braces.  She had her glasses on, but so do many other children out there.  Besides her lack of speech, there was no way for her to know that there was a reason why she couldn’t feed the animals.  I didn’t know what explanation I could give to her, but did I really need to?