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

I'd think you were a bit bonkers Tbh

Including hens that are reared for cheap chicken?

You are right OP and I would have also talked to the child. To do this straight after a long chat about animals is not nice. I do have small kids btw, and they get outraged when I attempt to kill a fly!

There are huge huge swathes of grown adults that haven’t learned this yet!!

I am a very empathic person. I am in a caring role. I am vegetarian and try to care for our natural world as best I can. I am a woman. Now to the confession….

I remember, as a child, sitting on the doorstep pulling legs off crane flies. Just because…

I think you are right that this is just kids. It’s not nice but our frontal cortex (the breaks and checks and balances, on our more animal instincts), develops slowly and doesn’t complete that development until our early 20s. Our brains are animalistic at their core.

I must say I would also be embarrassed as a parent. I would be sad to think my child hadn’t already learnt how precious our ecosystem and wild life is, after 5/6 years of being raised to care for insects and animals.

I would be pleased to know, and reinforce compassion and kindness at home. Absolutely. Respect for all living things has to start young.

I remember my DS at 3 doing this. I was shocked. We are an animal loving family. We never kill bugs at home. We remove them outside. But it was his instinct. He didn’t know better. So I calmly explained. He’s now very lovely with all creatures.

Did you ask this lad why he did it? Did you find out where he’d got the idea?

• could be this is the model at home. Lots of adults kill bugs on sight. In which case it just needs a conversation.
• it might have been an instinct like my 3 yr old that he’d never been taught before. In which case it just needs a conversation.
• It might have been fear. In which case it just needs a conversation.
• or it could have been ‘for fun’ or ‘to see what you do’ or testing the boundaries, or defiance against what you’d been telling him. In which case the next question is ‘why?’. What does he need that he’s not getting. He’s 5!

A sanction won’t help him to learn empathy. It will make him hide his behaviour. A good logical consequence would be to make a bug hotel with him at break time, or a joint learning about the bug he killed - bugs are fascinating. That would help him to learn. That would help him develop empathy.

This! Also the minute I see a fly or a wasp in the house it's gone. There's no way I'm having them crawl over my food or sting my children. Bees are an obvious exception.

There’s a lot of hypocrisy on this thread. Animals being killed for food suffer in life and in death. I wonder how many anti bug squashers are vegans.
Seeking out multiple bugs to kill is something I would want to know. Anything else is OTT.

At the risk of a broad-brush sweeping statement, I do think boys are different. I remember watching in horror as my brothers tortured insects - slugs and spiders and so on. They were fascinated by it. But otherwise appear to be normal human beings, not cruel monsters in daily life.

It's fair enough to punish him mildly for it. It was showing total disregard for the lesson he had just been taught. It's like doing a lesson about litter, and then seeing a kid dropping all their wrappers in the playground 5 mins later.
Kids are taught about bugs, mini beasts, frogs etc as it gives them a standing point of respecting all animals and knowing they have a purpose. Then they go on to caring for hamsters, then they might get a cat or dog. They need to know hurting living creatures for no reason is cruel.

Have you seen a class when a wasp appears,going fom child to child, settling on this one buzzing round that one, stinger at the ready? There are screams, there are children leaping to their feet. Goodbye lesson...
The wasp must die.

I'd want someone to talk to me about it. Having said that my school seem to swallow lots of behaviour and then discuss general themes rather than specific instances - unless they had hurt themselves or others. Which in general is probably better than having every single concern/issue raised.

My son was a little bit like the child you mention, he has ASD and is contrary in nature and impulsive due to ADHD. He absolutely knows right from wrong but the more you dwell on what you should do - the more inclined he would have been to see what happens if you don't, when he didn't fully understand consequences. He would have been upset with himself when spoken to about it or given time to reflect.

He was the type of child if you praised him for walking nicely - you would be subjected to the Ministry of Silly Walks for the next 5 minutes. Very tedious to raise at that age.

If I was the parent I would make a complaint to the school about my child being given a behaviour point for childish ordinary exploratory behaviour

You do truly learn something new everyday! Yay, no more housework 😁 I hope the spiders can forgive my ignorance. I was the epitome of ‘she means well’ while causing mayhem. My home is their home from now on.

I hope you also counsel about the bacteria you are willingly killing when you encourage 5 year olds to wash their hands and even use hand sanitiser.

I'm sorry I can't bring myself to care about a bug being stepped on. No I don't have empathy for bugs. I also don't see any correlation between bugs and human beings, or other animals with a central nervous system, so I don't count myself a murderer when I eat chicken or fish or whatever.

So while I would listen politely I wouldn't be doing anything about it.

I kill bugs. Ants, spiders, cockroaches, flies, mozzies. Is it just other bugs you think is cruel to kill? I don’t kill harmless bugs like ladybugs or crickets ect. Or beetles. But in terms of being ‘cruel’ I don’t really see much difference between swatting a fly and killing any other insect they are both living.

I live in Australia and there are certain pests we are encouraged to kill. Cane toads for example. There is also certain fish and crayfish that if you catch them you must kill them it’s actually illegal to throw them back.

Yes, your home is their home. https://www.treehugger.com/facts-about-misunderstood-house-spider-4868827

I use mine as an excuse to dodge housework.
Can't possibly take the duster to the cobwebs in the corner if my housemate is using it, can I? It would be most inconsiderate of me🤣

Oh no 😱I did not. Thanks for the heads up. I feel bad now 😢

This.

You know house spiders die if you put them outside though?

Whilst it isn’t very nice of the child to do this, humans kill animals for all sorts of reasons. I don’t think you could argue many of the reasons are essential for our survival. I agree with your view completely but I wouldn’t bring it up with the parents as I also think it not rational as I am a meat eater and don’t mind killing mosquitos.

I would want to be told because it would mean I needed to do some more work on things like empathy, impulse control, maybe read some stories about bugs etc.

You need to know if there's a gap in the things you're teaching your child or areas you need to do a little extra on.

It's just part of raising children. They need your guidance and you need the fullest picture possible at all times in order to do your job properly and know what might need a little extra attention at what time.

Is there? In the modern world you can survive perfectly well without eating meat. You choose to for fun i.e you enjoy the taste and texture.