If you're a parent would you think this was ridiculous if I pulled you aside after school for this?

Ive killed hundreds of bladdy ants today - damn things have a nest somewhere i can't work out FFS. My kids help me kill them to. Just saying...

What are you looking for in starting this thread @L4815162342 ?

house point?
pat on the back for doing your job?

mind you… I’ve had calls for my now 18yo from idiotic head of year over ds playing with cucumber on a wet day break time. Trying to make out it could be dangerous to those with allergies. 🙄🙄

You have a 5yo. Who atm and on this score knows acceptable behaviour. That doesn’t make you an expert or a child whisperer. Some kids don’t get it, until you tell them or remind them.

you’ve spoken to the child, as was right, no need to take to the internet for validation.

I agree. I am more likely to rescue than kill a bug. But I used to pull crane fly legs off. I’ve turned out to be a very empathic person. Too empathic half the time!! It’s well within the norms of childhood behaviour. It’s not pretty. But impulse control develops gradually over time. Some adults never get there! Totally OTT of the OP.

I’m not sure spraying roses is much of a hobby any more than getting out a can of raid to kill a blue bottle

Oh dear god. A 5 year old squashing a bug is well within the realms of normal behaviour, not just for a 5 year old, but for adults too. A sanction was OTT.

No they don’t to some. And some bugs, the vast majority of us kill. If there is a mosquito buzzing around you, most of us squash it right? Even vegetarian, nature loving folk like me, do that. Yes, it’s good to help this boy learn empathy, but a sanction was OTT.

ComtesseDeSpair

It’s a personal ethical view. Most people worm and flea their pets, is that cruel? Are mousetraps cruel? Swatting flies / fly paper? Slug pellets? Yes, many parents would think you were overstepping and at best, ignore you.

Do people know you can get live mouse traps (as in you can free them afterwards?), that you can open windows and whoosh out insects/flies/trap a spider under a glass and put it somewhere away from your house? Can’t fix everything that way but some things are easy to get out alive. Also it’s the act of not caring that you’re hurting something that people take issue with because at 5/6 they’re supposed to live in their nice little’wow look at this’ cocoon as opposed to ‘ugh-kill!!!’

Ps wasp sprays etc are really bad for humans too, heard a guy say that in the 80s they traced loads of bronchial issues to people who used bug sprays regularly over the summer months (and spray air fresheners actually too)

So if you weren’t allergic you’d let them bite you happily?

Cricket this reminds me of an incident when we first came to the UK. A woman at my husband's work saw a spider, yelled and jumped on her chair. My husband (ever so kindly) came over and squashed the spider. The woman looked horrified, she was so angry that he killed it. He was mortified, he thought he did her a favour. Where were from half the spiders are poisonous so you def kill them on sight. I always think people in the UK can afford to take the moral high ground because they really don't have any animals threatening their survival. If I see a black widow spider you best believe I'll squash it, I won't put it outside so that it can climb back into my child's crib. And I kill other spiders too because some of them are called false widows so not poisonous but they are very hard to distinguish so no one takes a chance. Same with snakes, rats, mice, killed on sight. Really you can only afford to not step on bugs because they're all harmless.
So yeah I would think the teacher is a bit soft. Obv we still don't condone unnecessary cruelty, ie kids pulling legs of spiders or something like that. Sure if my kid went around killing ladybugs for no reason I'd want to now but it it was a one off and another kid maybe yelled or something I wouldn't think it warranted telling me.

I’d be happy you pulled him up on it at the time, but you bringing it up to me hours later seems OTT, yes. What do you want me to do about it that you didn’t do yourself at the time? Telling him not to do it, hours later when he’s probs forgotten he even did it, isn’t going to have much effect.

And yep, vegetarian who doesn’t kill bugs here. I still don’t think tell me to tell him off hours later is going to do any good.

The bug just needs to be thankful that I wasn’t on that playground with my Dyson 🐜

A behaviour point. I see the ultra micromanaging of the behaviour of children has begun. I'm sure this will help society.

@Abeona absolutely. There is a authoritarian streak in the name of ‘doing good’ in the shroud of moral superiority.

I am sat here reading this with a wasp and fly killer spray beside me as my windows wide open and fly/wasps keep coming in. I kill spiders I hate them I kill ants I kill moths. Sorry

Because the OP is taking a moral 'I know better, there's nothing you can teach me' stance which seems to have taken hold in lots of schools — particularly around the transgender issuebut other things too. Very black and white thinking. Lots of people on here wouldn't think twice about a child stamping on an ant. Perhaps that child's seen its parents stamping on ants or earwigs or woodlice or silverfish or wasps or carpet moths if they've had an infestation in their homes.

Anyone in a position of authority who is certain they know best should send up a red flag. No one is ever right on all things, no matter how well-motivated. Wise, experienced, thoughtful people know this and recognise how dangerous a reply which says basically 'there's nothing you can teach me' is. We can all learn.

Op yabvu. Absolutely ridiculous in fact. Some bugs are pests and carry diseases, it cannot be that it is an absolute rule to ‘not kill bugs’. That’s the wrong message to impress on a child. It’s not like he was pulling wings off a butterfly, is it.

My daughter was given a 15 minute time out at about the same age for standing on a spider at school after her friends told the teacher. I’ll be honest - I thought it was ridiculous despite feeling sorry for the spider!

I have my own five year old. They also have ASD. They know it's wrong to do this kind of thing
Doesn’t mean all children with ASD will understand that it is wrong. Or even all young children. Especially when the killing of some insects (spiders, flies etc) is often shown on TV/comic books and even sometimes presented in a comical way.

Back to your original question: I the teacher told me this I would wonder what they were expecting me to do about it - supposedly they already told the child so what else?

Fine for a teacher to mention to my child, but I'd think it was batsh!t of a teacher to mention to me as a parent

You are imposing your own morals which I don’t think is your place.

You are stating that it is wrong, but that is subjective. I kill bugs in my house. That isn’t wrong in my opinion. You won’t agree with that, and that’s fine, but it is not your place to decide my or my child’s view on it.

You said it is different killing a bug to killing an animal to eat but I have to say that I disagree with that. Have you seen the way the majority of animals are kept and killed in the meat industry? Have you looked into the dreadful dairy industry. If you are anything other than vegan, you are being hypocritical. And even if you are vegan, it’s still not your place to judge this child or speak to their parent.

I’d want to know, it’s mean behaviour

No it’s absolute correct and I would be speaking to the parent. A 6 year old should know not to purposely harm another living thing, basic parenting should have sorted this several years ago tbh.

You see, as a vegan educated about the awful tortuous conditions many farm animals live in, for me I don’t think there is a difference between paying money to support what is most likely tortuous conditions for a pig and killing your cat (at least your cat probably had a nice life to date).

But this is my perspective- many people do draw a distinction between a pig and a cat for some reason and that’s up to them, it most likely results from a disconnect between the treatment of many intensively farm animals and pets. When someone sits next to me eating a ham sandwich there would be no difference to me if they were eating a dog sandwich. But to me all animals should be treated well and that includes insects.

Honestly the punishment the teacher has given is excessive. Correct the child but it’s a first time stamping on a bug, so a moment to re enforce bug kind behaviour not give a black mark

That's true. On these posts you always get the oh I bet you're a hypocrite how can you claim to care about animals if you eat meat...

There were even a couple on the awful thread about the monkey torture if you can believe it!!

Having a chicken dinner means you don't get to say that torturing monkeys to death for entertainment is wrong.

Jesus.

I had a piece of bacon yesterday so I'll just go microwave my cat and then yeet my neighbours puppy into the wood chipper. 🙄