MosMom
<font color=deeppink>Damn you, you wretched clown!
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2000
- Messages
- 10,405
I recently had a talk with my 4 year old daughter about respecting life when she beat an earthworm to death with her Fisher Price baseball bat. I guess I was more upset that she would beat any living thing to death like that than the fact that it was just an earthworm. I just leave worms alone and if I find one alive on the pavement I will move it to the soil.
She observed me killing a spider the other day without a second thought and asked me if the spider was a living thing. I said "Yes" and she went on to ask me why I was killing it. She stumped me...she stumped me more than when she asked me where babies come from. I didn't know what to say! Where do you draw the line on what living things are okay to kill and what living things aren't.
She knows that meat comes from animals and that they have to be killed to get the meat (better than my mom who told me hamburger was cow poop...worse yet...I ate it still). I explain that as the circle of life though.
I guess what stumped me is that I got so angry with her for smashing a worm yet I smash spiders weekly. Most of the time we anthropomorphize animals which cause us to favor some over the others but you can't even come close to anthropomorphizing an earthworm. Life seems so simple until a 4 year old points out the obvious flaws.
Our dog and cat like to fight over who eats the spiders in the house so I guess I'll just leave the spider killing to them since I can explain that as the circle of life. LOL
She observed me killing a spider the other day without a second thought and asked me if the spider was a living thing. I said "Yes" and she went on to ask me why I was killing it. She stumped me...she stumped me more than when she asked me where babies come from. I didn't know what to say! Where do you draw the line on what living things are okay to kill and what living things aren't.
She knows that meat comes from animals and that they have to be killed to get the meat (better than my mom who told me hamburger was cow poop...worse yet...I ate it still). I explain that as the circle of life though.
I guess what stumped me is that I got so angry with her for smashing a worm yet I smash spiders weekly. Most of the time we anthropomorphize animals which cause us to favor some over the others but you can't even come close to anthropomorphizing an earthworm. Life seems so simple until a 4 year old points out the obvious flaws.
Our dog and cat like to fight over who eats the spiders in the house so I guess I'll just leave the spider killing to them since I can explain that as the circle of life. LOL
