We love going to the park near our house. There is a playground with shade. There are birds. There is a pond. There are walking paths. There are turtles, fish, ducks and geese.
My biggest problem with the last set is that for many children, the highlight of coming to the park is feeding the animals. They love to go onto the bridge and dump crackers and bread and whatever into the pond and see what eats it. It seems harmless enough, except that there are big signs at either end of the bridge saying "DON'T FEED THE WILDLIFE!" The pond gets messed up since the animals don't eat the algae. The animals get messed up from eating human food. The geese don't migrate. And the guests at the park are bothered by pushy ducks who chase you along the paths if you don't bring food. (Ever since I watched "The Birds" I've had a bit of a bird phobia...)
I admit that I once liked to feed the turtles. It is very convenient that they hear footsteps on the bridge and come swimming right over so that even the two year old shouts out "Dur Dus!" There are painted turtles and box turtles and a few snappers, including one huge one bigger than Luke. There are bluegills and perch and sunnies and even a few bass, I think. Today the fish were jumping out of the water to catch the bugs, and a few times to steal the bread from the turtles and ducks. They put on a real show---as long as you don't think about the reason...
I was gradually convicted by seeing the signs, and seeing how often people feed the turtles (every 15 minutes or so in the summer). The final straw was when Luke, Amanda and I were chased across the bridge and down the path by some ducks. We've gone cold turkey, to the point that I don't even take the kids down there if we have snacks because I know they'll want to throw stuff in the water.
The worst thing is that Amanda vaguely remembers feeding the turtles, so she will go begging other parents for bread to throw in. I've explained the problems to her (she also remembers the duck chase) but she's decided that she knows best.
Sorry for this slightly incoherent rant. It is really not done for one parent to tell another parent at the park that they are doing something wrong, so I'm writing about it here. If you can think of a way to let people know that they are wrong without losing my cool or really hurting the other parent's feelings, let me know. Given how strongly I feel, it's probably better to cool it.
My biggest problem with the last set is that for many children, the highlight of coming to the park is feeding the animals. They love to go onto the bridge and dump crackers and bread and whatever into the pond and see what eats it. It seems harmless enough, except that there are big signs at either end of the bridge saying "DON'T FEED THE WILDLIFE!" The pond gets messed up since the animals don't eat the algae. The animals get messed up from eating human food. The geese don't migrate. And the guests at the park are bothered by pushy ducks who chase you along the paths if you don't bring food. (Ever since I watched "The Birds" I've had a bit of a bird phobia...)
I admit that I once liked to feed the turtles. It is very convenient that they hear footsteps on the bridge and come swimming right over so that even the two year old shouts out "Dur Dus!" There are painted turtles and box turtles and a few snappers, including one huge one bigger than Luke. There are bluegills and perch and sunnies and even a few bass, I think. Today the fish were jumping out of the water to catch the bugs, and a few times to steal the bread from the turtles and ducks. They put on a real show---as long as you don't think about the reason...
I was gradually convicted by seeing the signs, and seeing how often people feed the turtles (every 15 minutes or so in the summer). The final straw was when Luke, Amanda and I were chased across the bridge and down the path by some ducks. We've gone cold turkey, to the point that I don't even take the kids down there if we have snacks because I know they'll want to throw stuff in the water.
The worst thing is that Amanda vaguely remembers feeding the turtles, so she will go begging other parents for bread to throw in. I've explained the problems to her (she also remembers the duck chase) but she's decided that she knows best.
Sorry for this slightly incoherent rant. It is really not done for one parent to tell another parent at the park that they are doing something wrong, so I'm writing about it here. If you can think of a way to let people know that they are wrong without losing my cool or really hurting the other parent's feelings, let me know. Given how strongly I feel, it's probably better to cool it.
Comments
Hurt feelings are not all bad, if it's sorrow for having not knows there was a better way...
How about a friendly, "It's fun to feed the animals, isn't it? [pause] I used to enjoy it myself, but then I realized that The pond gets messed up by algae that grow on the uneaten food. The animals get messed up from eating human food. The geese don't migrate. And little kids are scared by pushy ducks who chase you along the paths if you don't bring food."
It's an idea...