Lesson Learned...

Against my better judgment Birdboy #1 received a BB gun from Santa this past Christmas. I don't come from a family of hunters so I didn't see the point of purchasing a gun for a 9 year old boy that would never really amount to anything. However Birdpapa argued that every little boy should at least have a BB gun- this came with a promise that all he would shoot would be pop cans, boards, targets and the occasional ground squirrel. I could live with that. However, this weekend Birdboy #1 started in on bigger targets. Birds. Come to find out he's been doing this for awhile and I was not happy about it. I was watching Boy #1 creep across the lawn and wondered why this poor little robin birdy was not flying away. It finally dawned on me that he had shot the robin in the wing. I instantly yelled at Boy to come to my side and we had a heated discussion that turned into tears and fear because I told him he needed to kill the bird and put it out of it's misery. It killed me to tell him that but the poor bird was suffering. Several minutes later, more tears, and lots of sobbing Luke indeed killed the bird and gave it a proper burial. In my anger I told him he 'probably killed the mama robin' which provoked more sobs and a very upset little boy.

Forward 8 hours.

Birdboy #3 comes running to me yelling "Lukie killed the mama, Lukie killed the mama". Come to find out there is a small nest in the pine tree with 2 very small featherless, starving little baby birds. UGH! More tears and anxiety from Birdboy #1! 10 minutes later I find Boy #1 digging in the dirt for worms. I tried to explain that he couldn't feed the babies that unfortunately they just needed to die. I felt terrible, sick, and deflated as a parent. How do I handle this??? We sat down and had a talk about God's animals and life cycles, what's meant to be, etc... This did nothing for his anxiety. Poor kid. He moped until the next morning and into the evening. We finally wandered back out to the pine tree to find the baby birds and give them a little funeral as well.

WOWZA! The baby birds are still alive! Must not have been the mama! I have one happy little boy that has learned a great lesson.