18-04-2004, 02:03 AM
|
|
|
Toddler and laburnum
In article ,
says...
In article , Vicky
writes
I belong to the Alan Titchmarsh school of thought that it is better to
educate children about the dangers of plants rather than remove them
altogether.
Exactly . . . if you cocoon them when they are little, they don't stand
a chance when they become independent adults  (
Unfortunately children's self-control is erratic. You can teach them
facts, and you can test them afterwards to make sure those facts are
learned. Then they do whatever it was that you know they knew better
than, and you ask them why, and they have no idea why they did it! And
they *still* remember perfectly well you telling them not to, and why!!!
I even remember one time at about 4 or 5 years old I was sitting on my
bed with a pair of scissors, which my parents trusted me with to cut out
paper shapes. I'd been using scissors safely for at least two years so
they didn't think I needed supervising any more. I'd run out of ideas
for paper shapes, and I watched with horrified fascination as my hand
gathered up some bedcover and the other hand started cutting a shape out
of it. There's no question but that I knew it was wrong, but equally no
stopping my exciting activity.
And how did I explain it to my mother who came in just before the shape
was completely cut out? "I couldn't help it" was my lame-sounding but
true excuse.
|