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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

School are going to think DD(8) has a warped mind!!!

147 replies

Jourdain11 · 15/09/2021 00:17

DD2's Year 4 class are writing "urban wildlife diaries" this week and I took a look at what DD had written so far this evening.

"There were rats at the bottom of the garden. I saw two it was the size of a cat."

"At night I could hear foxes fighting and they make a sound like ladys screeming ." (At least she didn't know what they were actually doing.)

"On the way home I saw a dead squirel and two pigeons were eating it."

"There are lots of spiders in our house and my dad washed them down the plug drownde them."

Urgh... I'm sure the teacher was expecting different kinds of birds singing outside the window and late summer butterflies. DH thought it was hilarious but I'm sure the teacher is going to think she's a Disturbed Child.

Yes, IABU: let her get on with it and see how grim it gets

No, IANBU: encourage her to look at, er, more pleasant urban wildlife.

OP posts:

SmileyClare · 15/09/2021 08:50

Waiting to see the teacher at a parent's evening, I flicked through my son's "news book" and was horrified to see one entry;
"My mum went to the pub for her birthday and then she was ill" alongside a picture of me lying next to a bucket.

Mortifying but I couldn't fault his honesty. I was a bit sick the next day. I must admit I speed read the entire news book after that in a cold sweat, although thankfully there were no more incriminating entries.

Young children are very factual and describe what they see!

BiBabbles · 15/09/2021 08:51

My spouse and I called it our kids' morbid stage around that age. I've read that it's fairly common.

In fact, one of the English curriculums I use for about that age uses the poem Ooey Gooey (about a worm being squished by a train he did not see) and gives having them write their own version with different animals as an option an activity to do with it. My DS2 (9) did this recently, and his involved a mouse not seeing a trap [even though he's only seen humane traps], a bear not seeing a poacher's trap, and a man not seeing a car...

MrsRobbieHart · 15/09/2021 08:57

encourage her to look at, er, more pleasant urban wildlife.

I find this quite odd tbh. Why should she pretend the less pleasant aspects of wildlife don’t exist and that she didn’t see them? what’s wrong with recording what she has seen/heard?

chesterelly · 15/09/2021 09:01

Have the BBC signed her up for Autumnwatch yet?
My oldest DC wrote a school diary entry that was along lines of "A fox was in our garden. Our dog rolled in its' poo. The poo was stinking. We had to give dog a Bath. He was stinking of fox poo. He escaped from the bathroom and ran round the house. The house was stinking of fox poo. Daddy had to catch him. He was stinking of fox poo. He was fumming and swore. Fox poo stinks."

Peanutsandchilli · 15/09/2021 09:40

My 13 year old has written some very grim stuff in school in the past. She has a room full of dolls that she's taken the arms and legs off and reattached and she's painted some crazy stuff in art. She's very creative and nobody has every said that it's worrying. She likes watching hospital dramas and is fascinated by gore. I just let her get on with it, she's perfectly normal otherwise!

TheNoodlesIncident · 15/09/2021 10:01

Your DDs teacher will be glad of a break from the norm It's not a break from the norm though, it IS the norm.

I wrote about similar things at that age, I imagine most of the class will. Most children are interested in gory stuff.

Obviously OP your DD is observing a part of food chains/food webs, it's useful to know that most things are involved in eating other living things and/or being eaten by others are just a part of the fabric of life.

drspouse · 15/09/2021 10:10

My DS is 9 and obsessed with graveyards. We have one next to church and he delights in working out how old people were when they died. If he can't do the sums he insists DH does it. DH is missing his own parents and says he finds this really depressing.

TheVolturi · 15/09/2021 10:24

😂😂 I think it's brill. Do something about those giant rats though! Get a Jack Russell?

Original poster

Jourdain11 · 15/09/2021 11:01

To clarify on the spider killing, I don't think my husband gets kicks out of killing them. According to him, it's kinder to do this than to drop them out of the window or whatever, because they will die from this anyway and you'll probably injure their legs doing so and they'll be in agonies. I'm not an animal-killer or a spider-hater, but I don't relish the idea of a houseful of spiders and their magical webs.

Thanks for all the advice! I'll let her run with the diary... Although I'm not certain that writing about what she smells, on the current form, is a good way to go

This is following on from a what I did in the summer piece of writing which contained the memorable lines "we went to France for a week and I got to stay up late every night and drunk lots and lots of wine".

OP posts:

UnaOfStormhold · 15/09/2021 11:03

I'm just imagining the text read by David Attenborough...

Original poster

Jourdain11 · 15/09/2021 11:04

@Mrsfrumble

Am I right in thinking you’re in central London *@Jourdain11*? We’re in Hackney and rats and mangy foxes sound fairly standard, plus the odd deformed pigeon eating KFC leftovers in the gutter. And your DD’s spelling is much better than my 8 year old’s!

Yep, Zone 2 but on the other side of town! (Shepherd's Bush/Acton)

OP posts:

PineappleWilson · 15/09/2021 11:05

Let her crack on with it. My DS is years older and we'd never get him to write that ammount of text (sigh). It will give the teacher a smile if nothing else, but is really very descriptive. Good for her.

Gilead · 15/09/2021 11:14

Once had a comment about appropriate musical listening. Ds had been singing Tom Lehrer’s ‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’ in the playground!

Alloftheboys · 15/09/2021 11:24

During a bug and insect topic a child piped up with “my daddy’s got bum worms” 😂

PenguinWings · 15/09/2021 11:45

When we found a dead rat my DS wanted to bring it to school to show to his reception teacher.
In the end he just settled for sending her a photo of it.
She said that it was very interesting.

Papergirl1968 · 15/09/2021 11:48

Dd will go far, as will the bunny killing Brownie, lol.

Gingernaut · 15/09/2021 11:50

If you take her to Richmond Park, you might see some deer?

3scape · 15/09/2021 11:51

Dead buzzard in the hedgreow near school this morning. Quite a few kids were having a good look. She's made some good observations there.

Original poster

Jourdain11 · 15/09/2021 13:07

Richmond Park is a nice idea, but we'll have to see how the rest of the week pans out! Our cat caught a bird this morning, so I have a suspicion that this is going to make it into the diary highlights...

OP posts:

ThumbWitchesAbroad · 15/09/2021 13:24

@Gilead

Once had a comment about appropriate musical listening. Ds had been singing Tom Lehrer’s ‘Poisoning Pigeons in the Park’ in the playground!

An absolutely quality piece of music! Good for him. Maybe give the Masochism Tango a swerve until he's a bit older though...

Dead rats - ah. We found a huge dead rat under my Dad's sink - had been giving off gas for a while - and both my sons wanted a picture of it before it was buried in a hole in the garden (the hole was already there but it had to be filled in after the rat was dumped in it, due to the gas - we didn't give it an actual "burial" as such!)
I think they find it quite fascinating - but I'm not worried because it's good for them to understand that dead things aren't scary or anything like that.

Mrsfrumble · 15/09/2021 13:50

Ahh, I think anywhere in zone 2 is going to be more “crack fox from the Mighty Boosh” than Wind in the Willows

As I keep trying to get across to my DCs, writing tasks are more about using adventurous vocab, descriptive language and SPaG than actual content anyway.

2bazookas · 15/09/2021 13:51

My kids teachers used to treasure the written revelations about life in Bazookaland, especially when they came from other children not mine, and save them up to show me. One of the classics was:

" I went to play at LittleBazookas. While we were having lunch, Mrs Bazooka killed rats with her mop".

TimeForTeaAndG · 15/09/2021 14:21

@Jourdain11

Thanks for all the advice! I'll let her run with the diary... Although I'm not certain that writing about what she smells, on the current form, is a good way to go

They won't die from the fall. They spread out their legs to slow themselves down and they're light enough that they float. So tell him to stop drowning them. Or, he could gently put them outside (we have a little portable spider trap) and then they can wander off.

DoIBully · 15/09/2021 14:43

Aged 8 my brother wrote in a similar diary "I heard my mum and dad go to bed, they were giggling and panting like dogs when they run a race. Which isn't fair because I get told off for giggling"

My mum worked at the school as well, she says she never looked that teacher in the eye again

ImprobablePuffin · 15/09/2021 14:59

@Mrsfrumble

Ahh, I think anywhere in zone 2 is going to be more “crack fox from the Mighty Boosh” than Wind in the Willows

As I keep trying to get across to my DCs, writing tasks are more about using adventurous vocab, descriptive language and SPaG than actual content anyway.

Ah the crack fox, I remember him well. Happy days

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