To think you don’t catch a butterfly and take it round M&S

I think it was incredibly cowardly of you to speak directly to the child and not approach the mother.

It is clearly the parent's responsibility and you should have taken it up with her not direct the child.

I’m not vegan or even vegetarian, but I get her point. I presume you wouldn’t take kindly to somebody coming up to your child and telling them they shouldn’t be eating their sausage roll.

But... that's even worse. You know, but you despite that you support industrial chicken factories?

This has tickled me so much 😂

Good for you OP. The silly mother shouldn’t let her kid be cruel to a living creature.

Minding your own business is a very underrated virtue

Agreed. I'm baffled by this thread. To me the tone of some of the posters reads as if the mum had said they were going to stick pins in the butterfly and mount it, rather than what she actually said. And I'm not a monster I promise, I rescued a couple of ladybirds from a lido last week 😁

People care about what they're witnesses to, especially if their intervention in the moment can make a difference to that individual creature. I mean caterpillars are sprayed with insecticide all the time and nobody seems to be campaigning about that, but if a piglet where being killed live in Tesco I should imagine there'd be uproar and mass protesting.

But it clearly does have to do with precisely that. 😅 Why are people getting wound up about inconveniencing a butterfly when millions of highly intelligent cows and pigs are bred and raised and killed in horrible captivity in the UK every year. The supermarkets are going to get very sociable indeed if we all start commenting on that.

Well that’s the thing isn’t it. Was the little girl/mum planning to do something “wrong”. Yes they probably were. But was it significantly bad enough to warrant calling out? How would OP feel if people commented on the contents of her trolley?

“Oh I see you have some cow’s milk in there? But I do expect you are going to out that back before finishing up in here aren’t you?”

“Oh that’s a lovely leather coat! But I’m sure you won’t want to buy any more animal clothes in the future, will you?”

”Oh that’s a lovely car you’re travelling in with you mum! But I hope that she won’t always have such a large vehicle?”

What an incredible thread. I would be horrified to see a child encouraged by an idiot of a parent to capture a wild creature and take it home for their own pleasure. It shows no respect for other species.
And it has absolutely nothing to do with whether you eat meat or not.

I get you @FanofLeaves it's about teaching children to respect nature and leave it be. I do that with my own dc. We observe and I always tell them to stay back and not interfere or harass the animals we're looking at.

YANBU OP, that’s child’s mother sounds dense

If you eat non organic kale or broccoli, especially in summer, you’re a white butterfly murderer. The caterpillars decimate those crops if left to do their wild thing. So even our vegan probably has butterfly blood on her hands. In NZ you are visited by some type of bio police if they spot the butterfly in your street and they come and spray your brassicas for you if you don’t get rid.

All I’d say is, maybe confronting and humiliating this child in public who was showing an interest in and appreciation for nature in her own clumsy way was not the best way to get closer to the big picture of encouraging empathy for living creatures in children. I discourage capture of creatures and ask my children to think of themselves being plucked away from us by a hand in the sky at times. But I’m also aware that survival, or even just basic comfort, means being prepared to murder and control masses of other living creatures during the course of one’s life. Or paying others to do so for you. Any medicine you take exists because scientists like the little girl tested it on countless creatures like that butterfly before deeming it safe for you to take. It’s complicated.

I agree with leaving animals be - but I don't agree with walking up to and lecturing other people's children in a supermarket. You speak to the adult - if you are so concerned.

I definitely wouldn't just stand there listening to OP lecture my child.

Every once in a while Mumsnet offers up a thread so ridiculously middle class I can't believe it's not parody.

This is one for the ages.

I don’t know - I reckon you probably had chicken or some other meat or dairy in your trolley.

So yes, you’re a hypocrite.

Amazing the story of the little rescued peacock butterfly who lived with the poster and her daughter for seven months. What a miracle.

I wouldn’t allow my daughter to do this, she would be happy observing in nature for a fleeting second before it busily flies away safe in the knowledge that it’s safe and unharmed. You have to teach children these things.

It's called sarcasm.

Again, why are you making assumptions about me?

My apologies. OK. Most of us are hypocritical about something or other if we are truly honest with ourselves, and look deep enough. I hadn't realised there were some perfect people on the planet. You are clearly a much better human being than me.

You aren't a fan of feministic women?

Are you related to Eric Cantona?

Large Whites are also not in decline.