This story was shared with me by a friend.
I decided to up the ante and actually follow through with a Pinterest idea. At school my son had been learning about lifecycles so I decided to get one of those butterfly kits.
My son was so excited when he saw that creepy little caterpillar. I had a brief moment where I wondered why the heck I was inviting a bug into my home but I was soon swept up in his enthusiasm. Especially when he was so captivated by the caterpillar that I was able to put my feet up, have a hot cup of tea and leaf through a magazine for half an hour.
It didn’t stop there. Every morning he rushed to check on the progress of his new best friend. I thought the excitement would wane during the boring cocoon period but he still kept vigil, not wanting to miss the moment his butterfly hatched.
At long last the big day arrived. ‘Out of the cocoon came a beautiful butterfly’. The boy was thrilled, as was I. I was beginning to wonder if the dang thing had died in there.
We talked about what the butterfly would want, now that it could fly. Slowly I began to convince my son that it was cruel to keep the butterfly and we had to release her/him/it. Plus I had no idea the life expectancy of butterflies and wanted it out of the house well before it kicked the proverbial bucket. After a little pouting and whining he agreed, as I offered him the opportunity to be the one who gave little Beauty his/her/it’s freedom.
With a proclaimed ‘Fly away, budderfly!’ my son removed the mesh cage. The butterfly drunkenly weaved into the sky….
I accidentally showed my son the real, brutal lifecycle of a butterfly. Oops.
Have you accidentally scarred you kids for life with pets?
Have you nominated anyone for the MADS awards yet? I’d love your vote under the Baby section. You just need your email address and my webpage address. Takes two minutes and gives me a warm glowy feeling. Thank you!
Oh my word – this could so happen in our house ! #bigfatlinky
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Who knows when that sneaky bird is waiting to strike.
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Ha! Maybe we should introduce this one in to schools! Thanks for linking up #bigfatlinky
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I’m not sure they’d go for it. Thanks for hosting.
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lol oh no!!! Seriously, what are the chances!!?? It will be a great story for him to tell as an adult! #bigfatlinky
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you have my vote too! This is a great story – I might read it to my kids at bedtime in between telling them that Santa doesn’t exist and the tooth fairy got hit by a fly swatter on her way here! #brilliantblogposts
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Thank you, Morna. A fly swatter? They do get into trouble. When I was little ours used to get waylaid by bottles of wine occasionally. My favourite is that one on the net that was doing the rounds where the fairy couldn’t get in to the kids bedroom because it was so messy.
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It’s a dog eat dog world. Or bird eat butterfly. I tell my children that there are no supermarkets in nature. When we released our butterflies, my 2 year old, at the time, cried. She just hadn’t understood that they had to go.
Living out in the countryside, all sorts of rescued creatures are brought into the house. Birds, bats, mice….some recover, but most don’t. I ‘d love to say the children are learning…but I’m not sure they’ve got there yet. #BrilliantBlogs
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I’m not imagining some kind of Dr Doolittle animal hospital in your house. My mum was of a similar, honest persuasion. Once we rescued a bird which flew into our window then guarded it from cats for an hour until the RSPCA arrived. The minute they left my mum told us they’d probably just driven around the corner to flick it’s head off the curb. We were not impressed.
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Not pets, but a Unicorn. It was the end of an era when my oldest one found out they were in fact not real and only a myth. hehe
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Oh my! How devastating. How did you manage to keep that one up?
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He is convinced they will be born again the day a rhino and a horse decides to make a baby, because that can happen you know! lol
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Like a liger or a mule…kind of. Maybe we could start smaller like rhino plus elephant (elephino) and go from there.
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haha yeh, I’ll mention that to him actually, and don’t get me started on the liger, it’s a big fascination in this house! lol
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There are worse things to be fascinated by. At least he can’t catch one in the garden and bring it in the house.
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Hahaa no true that, he does however catch other things…like spiders. 😮 😮
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*runs away screaming*
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Yupp, that’s me! lol
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Oh my word! I can only imagine the horror on mom and kids face! But i have to say, this is pretty hysterical! RIP Little Beauty…in eternal flight…
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Eternal flight, haha, love!
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Haha oh no the poor kid!! Great post and great illustrations! #brilliantblogposts
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Yes, poor thing *she says, trying to hide her giggles*
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Haha Couldn’t help it!
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I just love your illustrations. It’s so unique. You have my vote for The Best Baby Blog. 🙂 My kids found a caterpillar in the back yard and you would have thought they struck gold with how excited about it they were. I am pretty sure that they terrorized it to death. As my teenager is sitting here reading everything I write…he’s so nosey…damn nosey teenagers. He informed me that he took the caterpillar from them and threw it over the wall. Just lovely.
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Hahaha! That’s hilarious. I hope you don’t write about him often! Or you do and that’s why he’s checking up on you?
Poor caterpillar. I hope it wasn’t snatched up by a bird on its way!
Thanks so much for the vote. There’s my warm glowing feeling again 🙂
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He’s a good kid…gets good grades …works his ass off in sports and even wants to get a job at 15…the principal lives across the street and has him take care of their house when they’re out of town …I’m a proud mama of that boy. :))
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That’s great. I don’t think my mum could say the same of me at 15. I did have a job from 14 but only so I had my own cash for all the naughtiness…and CDs.
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