to think you shouldn't let dc kill ants, ladybirds, etc./scare birds, cats, etc.

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I'm probably going to get people telling me that I'm being OTT, but is just me or does anyone else get a bit annoyed when you see dc chasing birds or clapping at cats or even to the point where dc wack cats with things and parents are just standing there doing nothing? Or where dc see how many ants they can kill, wtaf? Is it just me?

Same here . Could've wrote your post.

no not just you gets my goat too my children were brought up with pet animals and taught to respect them and other forms of life sadly the kids who behave badly towards animals never learn compassion for animals which is so sad and there is so much cruelty towards animals already in the world we dont need another generation who dont care

Absolutely agree, with the sole exception of neighbours cats in my garden. I reserve the right to shout at them!

Nope, YANBU. I completely agree with you.

YANBU, Except for slugs WHO EAT ALL MY PLANTS

I absolutely agree, and there was a starling inside Morrisons when DD and me went in this afternoon and I'm still worrying about it now! Poor confused thing!

Yanbu. Mine have been read the riot act over their odd stupid moment. They're pretty good these days, they gently put spiders outside if they don't want them in their rooms.

I'm the wally who even rescued a flea I found in the living room and put it down the end of the garden .

Drives me nuts.

I once stopped a child from chasing the pidgeons. He wasn't just doing it for fun, he was deliberately trying to hurt them.

Parent was stood watching with a smiling. When he came too close to me trying to catch the pidgeon, I told him to stop it. Parent frowned at me, quickly grabbed their child and walked off.

I didn't care. The pidgeons wasn't doing any harm

I agree too. I watch people's kids chasing the birds and hope fervently that one of them shits on them. Preferably right in the middle of the phone screen they are invariably paying attention to rather than their children.

Same here!
My DS looks out for snails and tries not to crash them with his scooter

I clap at cats and chase them out of my garden so do my DC. We are all sick of the cats killing all the birds that nest here.

YANBU. I can't stand this!

Teach your children to have some bloody respect for other living things, ffs.

It would be very hypocritical of me to tell them not to kill ants and flies when they see me doing it.
I'll rescue a spider from my house but ants and flies have to die.

I wouldn't let them frighten or hurt any other animals though.
And no I don't think that all animals are equal.

Pestilence13610 - I think that is vary different, you are saving something else. I mean the cats that are just sitting on a wall or outside on the pavement or something

NeedAnotherGlass - so you wouldn't tell them to stop purposely treading on ants/squidging them outside?

And I'll give a fly approximately 1 minute to fly out of the open window or door that I'm trying to shoo them towards before I swat them

Recently at Paulton's Park a couple was letting their children run around a try to kick the ducks.

I'd have been ashamed.

Flies are fair game in this house too, but my children have been taught not to touch or go near spiders as we have poisonous ones here. No chasing birds, cats or squirrels allowed.

DS is obsessed "feeding" ants at the moment, leaving trails of crumbs for the outside. Probably going a little too far in the other direction and we'll end up with an infestation.

Hmm, I hate pigeons, they're stinky flying rats, I'm quite happy to let my (any) child run after them and scare them.
Flies are fair game.
Any other insects are left at peace except for ants when they get into the house- squash em. Spiders are amazing and have not to be injured under any circumstances.
Wasps get squashed too, they sting out of spite and cockroaches can fuck right off too, but we only see these on holiday. Thank god.
Next doors dog can get chased too cause I'm sick of picking up its shit in my garden.
Aside from those exceptions. . . .

This is a huge problem for me. I can't stand seeing anyone scare/hurt ANY animal or insect. No matter how big or small. I get overly upset about it for some reason (when I was a child I burst into tears because my family had picked cockles at the beach and I spent about 2 hours trying to put them back on the rocks!).
I have massive phobias of moths and spiders but I can't bear to see anyone kill them!
Pigeons are really cute! I hate seeing people trying to scare them Mari why do you think it's ok? And wasps don't have the capacity for spite- they don't go about searching for someone to sting!
When I see children being really horrible to animals I worry that they lack empathy and wonder how that will transfer to human relationships as they grow.

Totally agree.

No YANBU. It infuriates me, children need to learn to be kind to living creatures. I think a gentle "shoo" is ok but not to hit, kick, shout at or deliberately stamp on.
A friend of DD was at ours one time and she has a very shrill voice and she yelled at our cat who was sniffing around the toys. I got a shock so our poor cat certainly did. I had to explain why we don't shout at animals but was shocked. Cat gives her a wide berth now!

I have a phobia of most bugs (spiders the worst), but still can't stand the idea of killing them, and can't bear being around if someone else is killing them (exceptions for health hazard situations).

I've tried to teach DS(3) to have empathy for all living things including insects, and to my pride, he now comes to tell me when a bug 'wants to go home' and I should 'put it outside'.

However, it has all now slightly backfired on me as he has gotten way too friendly with his little insect pals. Today he ran up to me with something in his hands beaming, "Look mummy, spider!"

I just about fainted on the spot. Had to try and get him not to dump it on me without panicking and screaming (don't want to pass on my phobia). Luckily it wasn't a spider but another less-phobia-inducing bug, but still!

In any case, I think it's good to value life, all life. There are occasions where we have to harm other life (ie. self-defence, threat to our own health), and arguments to be had about other justifiable reasons (food, clothing). But I don't think it can ever be acceptable to kill just for the fun(?) of it, and would never encourage this.

Totally agree. No need to harm anything that isn't harming you.

Well ds is still convinced we feed the ants that come into the house. I do. However he finds it terribly ungrateful that they stop coming after a couple of hours. I otoh know that the "food" has done its job.