I thought our kids were handling the passing of our dog pretty well... and then today happened

We had to put our chocolate lab down a couple of months ago after his hips got to the point where he was just clearly miserable all day. It was a really tough summer for all of us; I kept putting it off because I couldn't bring myself to do it. When we finally went through with it and informed the kids (two boys aged 8 and 5), they seemed kind of stunned, had lots of questions, but didn't react all that emotionally, at least not outwardly. There have been a couple of indications that the eight-year-old has been struggling with it (he'll get kind of quiet and distant for an hour or two here and there), but for the most part we thought they were doing OK.Today we took them to the book store just to spend some time browsing, and we let them each pick out a book. The five-year-old immediately zeroed in on a book called "My Chocolate Lab" and said that he wanted that one. My wife and I exchanged a "What do we do?" kind of look and tried to encourage him to look around and see if there was anything else he might want, but he was adamant. He wouldn't say why, but he wanted that book.Eight-year-old rounds the corner, sees the book in his hand, and loses his shit. "You can NOT buy that!!!" He tries to rip it out of his hands, and we separate them. Big bro is livid and still trying to get at his brother as I drag him out of the store. I get him outside, plop him on a bench, and sit down next to him. This kid who is normally mortified of being embarrassed in public breaks down in my arms, just full-on sobbing for several minutes. Little bro and mom emerge from the store and little bro watches his brother crying with this sort of thousand-yard stare look on his face. Big bro pulls it together, we get to the car, and as soon as we get in they're both crying.This was a couple of hours ago. They seem better now after some video game time (we were more than happy to let them do whatever they felt like doing this afternoon). We don't plan on discussing it with them tonight; just doesn't feel like that would go too well. We'll see whether lil bro requests that book before bed tonight.Sorry, I don't have any questions or even really a point here, I'm just trying to process what happened and it helps to write it out. I was a complete wreck after putting our dog down but I made peace with it because I know that I did the right thing by ending his suffering. I don't know that the boys have the same kind of logical tools to deal with it. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2AbvhYy