playing in the garden with worms!

[mckenzie]

our 3 year old DS is in the garden helping DH do the weeding but mainly finding worms, picking them up etc. He's holding them very gently but I still cant help feeling awful about it. I'm sure most children do it but does it hurt the worms to be picked up? We make sure he always puts them back on the soil but should we actually be stopping him from picking them up at all.
What do you do with your children?

Just don't let him lick his fingers afterwards!

that's the other problem. DD is a 2 finger sucker and not just when he's tired/bored.
He wont catch anything life threatening though will he as I dont think I'm ever going to be able to make 100% sure that he washes his hands after evey touch of the worm and before every finger suck?

Oh no, it's just that (according to my father) they taste foul!! He used to go fishing with worms for bait as a boy and sometimes didn't wash his hands before eating his sandwiches.

I would encourage your son not to suck his fingers when he's been playing like this in the garden though. It's a good habit. DS1 is a thhumbsucker so I know how difficult it is.

My dd just brought 2 worms to show me!

I encourage this as a learning experience - many great life lessons here:
you should respect the lives of animals
animals need to have their freedon
you need to wash your hands because of germs etc

I do not personally cry if the odd worm takes some damage by accident just as I don't cry for ants squashed underfoot. Not very buddhist, I know.

You can get threadworms if you don't wash your hands after handling soil though...

My dd is doing 'minibeasts' at school, part of which involves the children going into the school Wild Garden and catching whatever they can. I'm sure the poor creatures see the jamjars coming and say to themselves, 'Uhu! Must be September already!' Dd said she let a snail crawl over her hand last week - uuurrrggghhhh!!! I don't think any of the creatures come to harm and nor do the children, though they make sure hands are washed thoroughly, of course.

I used to eat worms, apparently. My mother says she let me get on with it.. I'm a vegetarian now, atoning for my sins as a toddler

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with us it is snails and woodlice.
dd was found licking a snail the other day (yes, the slimy bit!)
she seems to have survived.

i encourage ds to pick up (harmless) creatures. my dad made me do it and as a result im not scared of creepy crawlies now. (very good when you live alone and have very large spiders in your bath) i dont let him kill anything though...i cant stand kids being cruel to animals or insects...i just dont find it funny.