Year 6 (11 year olds) torturing worms

If all that happens is a child says ow, I tend to think it didn't hurt that much.

She turned out fine though in the end. A difficult phase. All kids go through them. If the problem was her father she wouldn't have had issues being disliked at school by other kids. She didn't have many friends because she wasn't kind to them but she is popular now and had rescue animals as an adult. She was brilliant to the dogs.

Sounds fairly standard behaviour for primary school boys

What a disturbed father he sounds.

Well it didn't harm her so all's well that ends well. If she had been beaten them that's different . I don't approve of beating. And bullying is worse. Bullying leaves lasting scars, most kids aren't harmed by a mild tap.

I would email school, say your son was bullied and the worm treated unpleasantly.

It's bad behaviour definitely, and school should have a word.

I actually think that is a dreadful way to role model for a child. To use adult size and weight against a child, who is plenty old enough to have the wrongness of cruelty explained to them.

You cannot be sure that she wouldn't have grown up into a kind person without her father assaulting her that way.

And your son is a star, OP. Brave as well as kind. You’re bringing up a good one.

I'd say when she said ow she may possibly have learned her lesson😊

No parents on here have mentioned a child being abused by an adult though . They are talking about another child being bullied and animals being harmed for fun.

That's physical abuse of a child, nothing to be held up as an example.

This is true. Sadists who go on to abuse children often start by abusing animals.

A worm grows into a kitten, I never knew that 😊 ok bad joke

They aren't toddlers. They are year 6. A child that does this needs consequences and discipline. I would ground a kid of mine who behaved like that at the very least.

When we were young we used to collect bees and wasps in a jar and fill half wirh water so they could swim, next day they'd all have drowned, my brother used to pull wings off flies and see if they could fly😔can't remember what age we all were but under 13. My brothers a doctor now and I reminded of this, he was horrified, said it never happened but it did. My point I suppose is that children can be cruel, I'd be horrified if my daughter did this in fairness but I don't think you'll get anywhere saying it to the school, would you not ask your son to mention it to the teacher to tell them all they shouldn't be doing this.

Yeah, I've found a lot of the comments here really surprising!

We're the sort of family who move snails from the path in the rain to keep them from being squished. I'd be really upset if either of my children thought it was ok to kill a creature, no matter how small.

But sometimes kids who stamp on small creatures are bullied anyway regardless of context. Evil starts off small.a kid who stamps on worms or bugs even without being a bully needs firm discipline. A stomp on their toes might set them in the right direction. See how they like it.

@ImWithGuineaPigsOnThisOne the two are linked only as far as the worm is used to get to OP's son, which is rather unfortunate for the worm. Bullies will always find the soft spot, which they have done.

When we used to go fishing, I couldn't bear threading earthworms and maggots on the hooks (poor worms, always the short straw!), so my brother and his friends did it with particularly squelchy gusto in hopes that I'll abandon the idea of tagging along with them.

And then kids throw worms at squealing girls...
There's worm things that are as old as age (at least mine) and then there's bully things, which is a lot more serious.

Even worse . But the two can be linked as my post above demonstrated . The child in that case was also a bully as well as nasty to insects. Also year 6. fortunately she had loving parents who recognised she needed discipline to change and she's fine now.

Y6 this is the least of your problems

They're not torturing the worm. They're bullying OP's son.

Exactly . It's why it needs to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible. Whilst most kids won't have the brain issues or adverse childhood experiences needed to turn them into actual sociopaths, they could turn into bullies if not shown a way to be better.

Exactly . It starts somewhere and often it’s with creatures such as worms or insects . It’s a sign of a problem often just stupidity and / or cruelty that can be dealt with but rarely can be a sign of conduct disorder. My friends son has this and started with insects , then moved on to 2 family pets-the first was thought to be an accident for years till there was a second tragic loss and they realised In hindsight the first pet dying wasn’t an accident

It's how the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer started....😞

A friend's parent dealt with it this way.

Friend stepped on a little ladybird. Just for fun. She was 10 or 11 and had a tendency to be moody and a bit of a bully with it.

Later that day Her father berated her for her cruelty and stomped on her bare foot. She said "ow" and he said "well that's what you did to the ladybird." She learned her lesson and isn't cruel to animals now. Her father nipped it in the bud. She has grown up to be a kind soul. She also is quite well liked in our group of friends, whereas in childhood she was not popular (for obvious reasons!)