teaching kids the difference????

[BIGBANG]

one issue my wife has with me keeping snakes is the issue of kids, we have 3 kids 6,3 and 9 months, and her problem is how do you teach your kids that the snakes daddy/mummy has in a cage at home are pets and its ok to touch when you are around but if you see a snake outside you are not to go near them and must tell an adult, our 6 year old is very mature and understands this but how do you teach the younger ones????

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also my 3 year old doesnt talk he has learnt sign language so would be very hard to just say ya cant touch them cos he just doesnt understand.

 

[saintanger]

you can try to tell them but a 3 year old that does not understand and a 9 month old who doesn't understand anything, aint gonna work. wait till they are older.

i have a 16month old and wen she see's one of my pythons she crawls to me and trys to grab them and wants to touch and hold. so i know what she would do if she saw one at the park or bush ect. thats why i have locks on all enclosures.

its great your 6 year old understands the younger 2 will understand wen ther older too.

 

[SteveNT]

As soon as they have the nouse give them the information. Anything prior is wasted.

 

[jack]

i consider my children (2 & 4) less likely to play with a wild snake due to exposure at home. they are also both able to identify which species are venomous in the house. valuable education.

 

[Bluetongue1]

Like others have said…all in the fullness of time. It is no different to anything else you teach your kids. They learn they have to use the plastic mugs and not a glass, something they pick up very readily. That is potentially just as dangerous an issue and a hell of a lot more likely to happen. Just because it’s pets does not make it any different. You train your kids not to go near stray dogs yet they can play with the family pet to their heart’s content.

Responsible, knowing behaviour starts to develop around 5 years of age, give or take a year. Prior to that, as a responsible parent you basically supervise or bomb shelter your child non-stop. In other words, they are either under direct supervision of a responsible person or are in a situation where they cannot damage themselves, such as a cot or a play pen.

I do have two children, both adults now. One has flown the coop but comes home to watch the footy on the big screen tv. The other keeps the washing basket full. You wouldn’t get him out with a crowbar.

Blue

 

[slim6y]

Watch educational TV programs with your children. I can recommend such educational greats as Anaconda, Snakes on a Plane, Python and Boa vs Python.

Of course Snakes on a Plane is the only one that deals with the tricky subject of venomous snakes.

My daughter was (when in Australia) very good at spotting snakes and steering very clear of them. However, it's the snakes they DON'T see that are the dangerous ones - and unfortunately, Aussie elapids can tend to be well camouflaged and many accidental bites occur from the snakes you don't see.

Healthy respect sure beats fear any day!

 

[Snotty]

For my son I always drummed into him "Look but don't touch" and as he got older "If you don't know what it is, don't bl**dy touch it". (Wish more adults would follow that one...) For sign language just lead by example. Kids can figure things out at their own pace as they move on. A healthy respect for all animals is not a bad thing anyway. Books and trips to the zoo are always good, no idea about sign language but I imagine it is not that hard to come up with a thumbs up for the Python pics and whatever the sign for danger is for anything else.

Oh and take the kids out bushwalking with you or out on the farm etc. My father always took us fishing and in the bush, even had me in his backpack as a baby, kids are very clever they will soon figure out the difference. When my father stopped dead in the track and occasionally grabbed one of us to stop us going forward we soon figured things out. The look on my fathers face when it was a brown snake or RBBS compared to a lizard or whatever it was - well he never had to say a word.

 

[Wild~Touch]

Simple ...drum it into them that they are not to touch anything (snakewise) without parents permission.

And in saying that put locks of on your enclosures and keep the keys up high out of reach to the children then outdoors teach them to yell out to you if they "see"
anything snakey real or imagined.

Then hope to hell it all works

Cheers
Sandee

 

[Jande]

A friend of mine has kids and a couple of fiesty carpets. The childrens python and woma python are all that she allows them to handle as the kids are 4 and 5 years old. She managed the same issue by sticking a colourful, appeals-to-children sort of smiley face sticker on the tanks of the woma and childrens. Basically the kids learned to only handle the snakes with a smiley face sticker. She tells them that the carpets are mean, don't like to play and are dangerous. Now they have zero interest in the carpets, so she assumes it's doing what was intended.
Not sure how it will go when a wild snake does eventually show up, but she figures between the stickers and the supervision when outdoors, she's done everything she can to educate them given their ages. Might be worth a thought, especially with a child who communicates visually.
Good luck.

 

[-Peter]

What Jack Hinde said. Educate.

 

[Hyper]

I was concerned about this too. I have a 4 yr old son and 3 yr old daughter. I have always drummed into them that mummy's snakes are different to wild ones and you can never touch a wild snake. A few weeks ago, we were walking through a park and this nice size red belly was sitting on the path sunning itself. The kids, while interested, didn't want to get to close. They froze in place, asked if we could lift them up for a better view (it was half in long grass and they didnt want to get any closer), then we went back the other way. They were really good and I was surprised they weren't trying to get closer.
Ive been giving them talks about only touching snakes when mummy says its ok and telling them about the venomous snakes that make you go to hospital since they were born pretty much, they work.

 

[csmlg]

Hi
I Being the properly over protective mum was very much the same with our autistic 3 yr old. Lol lol. It's a mums thing I think! I have found over the time she is no good with hatches, as she far to full on for them and a bit just means he a little cranky today. In saying that I know our hatches are just about bomb prof when they leave us, which is grate for the buyer. Our bigger guys spend hours in her toy room with her no problem at all. She was a little strange in the beginning as any snake any where other then at home was a scream and a frantic panic. As you shouldn't be holding them or anything cause they not ours from home. Which was a bit funny! Poor thing was very confused about it all! But as the years have gone by she will ask if it okay if we are out now to hold the reptiles and If they are cranky today before she touches. Not that cranky stops her lol lol. No fear at all! I know if she in the garden with her cousins she would be the one to scream snake and stop anyone from going near it as for my sisters children who are not aloud to touch even ours still they would want to poke it with a stick or catch it for their bug catcher. I have learnt teaching them the right way about snakes it much better then nothing at all,even for kids who are a little special like my daughter.
Even if we didn't have snakes as pets I have learnt that I would teach my children about them now.
Best of luck with your guys journey of snakes kids, it a lot of fun and benefits all parties.