Children damaging saplings in the forest.

[WonderingWanda]

I'm interested to hear your views on this. 13y/o ds was waiting for me in the first car park, he saw some younger boys destroying a sapling and walked over and told them not to damage it. The boys ran off to tell their Mum who then came and told off my ds. She asked him where it said they shouldn't damage the trees so he asked where it said they could? She then told him she wasn't going to argue with him and it wasn't his place to question her parenting.

Personally, I'm rather proud of ds for saying something to the boys and have always instilled a respect for nature in my children. I told ds I thought he did the right thing. Bg the time I arrived the boys were booting their football at other people's cars and it struck me that their mother was rather ineffective at controlling them.

So YAIBU children should be allowed to damage trees in the forest, your ds should have minded his own business

Or YAINBU it is wrong to let kids damage trees and your ds is a hero amongst teens

As a woodland manager YANBU and yes you should be proud of your ds. There is a certain amount of natural wastage w saplings in a forest but they have enough to contend with without kids vandalising them.

Parents like her are what is wrong with this world!
Good on your son for trying to get them to stop.

Trash breeds trash.
Well done to your son OP.

Wow well done your son. I would even be too scared to say anything 😄

Good for your son challenging them on it :-)
Awful behaviour on their and their mothers part.

Good for your son.

That stupid woman needs to grow up and realise that no, children can't just go round wrecking things that do not belong to them, whatever it is or wherever they are, just because they feel like it.

Some parents are just clueless. We have beautiful bluebell woods near us. You're not supposed to pick them. Two small girls were picking them and strewing them over the carpark to be driven over, parents watching indulgently.

Well done DS. Some parents just seem to think their little shits should be able to do anything they like.

Good on your son. You'll likely get loads of comments saying it's misogyny for your boy child to criticise an adult woman's parenting but quite frankly she deserves it. Glad to hear some people still think the word "parent" is a verb as well as a noun!

Well this shows the impact of parenting.

you raised your son to be respectful and that showed in his behaviour.

she raised her children to believe that damaging wildlife is for and that shows in their behaviour.

The very fact that she asked to be shown a written rule not to damage something says it all. Horrendous.

Thanks all, you have restored my faith in humanity.

@fitzwilliamdarcy probably although he didn't really criticise her, she was out of sight and he just spoke to the boys who were about 6 ish. He has a younger sibling and cousins and I think he was just trying to be a good influence. He would have been way too scared if the Mum was actually there.

oh fgs you KNOW it’s unreasonable of her to let the kids damage trees, what’s the point of your AIBU other than to preen over how wonderfully you’ve raised your son? 🙄

“The bluebell is protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981). This means digging up the plant or bulb in the countryside is prohibited and landowners are prohibited from removing bluebells from their land to sell”

Although they picked the flowers and didn’t dig up the bulbs I’d have quoted the above law at the parents and quickly snapped the discarded flowers.
I get really pissed off at parents who allow their kids to behave like savages.

exhibit a of mother with feral children right here ladies

I really despise people who destroy living things just for ‘fun’.

Some little shits in my dds year (back in year 6) destroyed all the apple tree saplings that a local woodland charity had planted the month before. The sad thing is that these kids had helped plant these trees as part of a project that their class took part in.

dd was really upset as she worked hard planting these trees. Parents didn’t care

Good on your son

@AnEpic Well I did say in my original post that I was proud, not sure there is anything wrong with that. As far as I'm aware a bit of preening isn't against the

rules.

However, to answer your question, I genuinely wanted to know if it was unreasonable for ds to have said something. Now are you going to answer my question....was he unreasonable or not?

Children should obviously be educated at schools to nature the environment,
we are custodians of nature passing through, handing it down to next generations.

Well done Op for bringing up a child like that who appreaciates nature ect.
I am well impressed especially his young age to have cofindence like that.
quite right he should be proud of himself,

No you won't.

I would be so proud OP if he was my son. Fantastic that he cares about nature and wants to pass it on. I think parents like the awful mother are in a minority but unfortunately it takes a lot less to destroy than create so it needs lots of us to be making a difference to have any effect iyswim.

Your son is amazing and very caring. That women is a disgrace. I hate it when parents seem to have an allergy to teaching their kids right from wrong. They won't wither away from a little telling off. A sapling is a living thing that has as much right to live as any person does, what those boys did was wicked. However their behavior is hardly surprising really when you look at who they've got for a mother.

Good for your son!

I always challenge this kind of behaviour. You can do it nicely, “shall we leave that young tree to grow up? This is a forest, a place for trees to grow happily, so best not to damage them” to young kids.