Posted on 08/10/2009 11:38:49 AM PDT by jurroppi1
Please help me out! My daughter grew a massive sunflower from seed in a wildflower garden that we planted late this spring. This flower was MAGNIFICENT, it had eight blooms and 3 or 4 more on the way! Neighbor boys cut it down with a tent pole this morning and Bachman's has told us that it will likely die.
We are in MN (twin cities area), so I'm trying to find somewhere, anywhere, that has sunflowers (mature ones preferably). Bachman's told us no dice - they don't have any.
My 2.5 year old is going to be crushed, and Mom and I are having a hard time trying to figure out how we will explain this to her. This is a brutal lesson for her to learn at 2.5 years old. She has been nurturing these flowers from seed - watering them herself, checking on them everyday, waiting for new blooms, etc...
The link I provided had two dozen nurseries in teh twin cities area. You will need to search phone numbers on the web but one of them probably has a big sunflower you could dig up and replant.
The idea was never to secretly replace it. I fully intended to tell her what happened and show here the flower that is now a 1’ tall stalk vs. what was a 6.5’ flower with 8 blooms and 3 ready to open. I am willing to replace her flower because she has taken such good care of it and deserves to be praised and rewarded for being so responsible about it.
I still hold out some hope that she will brush this whole episode off and deal with it gracefully, but I find it hard to expect that out of her and am looking at this with reasonable expectations - that she won’t be happy.
Can he find a local nursery where they could put one in a pot and he could replant it? I gave him a link to a list of at least 2 dozen nurseries in his area.
Do you think a nursery in MN has them in the summertime?
I have seen them in Kansas in the fields, TX and near Carmel in CA.
I am going to dig through these soon. Thanks for the help!
Agreed. Let her learn the lesson and contact the parents of the boys who did it.
Chet may have a pitbull he could borrow.
I think if this man gets a pitbull he would need to worry about the dog attacking his kid. Sunflowers will quickly become a minor issue.
Some FReepers have suggested some "teachable moments" and how to get some "positives" out of this. Lessons about nature, about bullies, and about mean people. Are you perhaps overreacting a bit? Trying to protect a child is natural but this is trivial compared to what she will face as she grows older. You have a choice of smothering her in a protective cocoon or teaching her to deal with the ups and downs of life.
In short grow a pair for her sake.
Boys are destructive. They will kill something just to see what's inside. They haven't yet learned the value of leaving something intact - they'll learn that in due time on their own.
The immediate lesson they need to learn however is one of respect for others' property.
NP. Just remember that the daughter will take a lot of her cues from you guys. She wil read your response and translate a lot of it into her own.
Just like when she falls down. A little “Whoopsy! All right keep going.” as you pick her up and seemingly forget about itl will get a whole lot different response than, “Oh my GOD! Are you okay? Let me hold you for a minute. Where does it hurt? Oooooh poor baby.”
It’s not that you aren’t concerned but just like a business team or a military unit, follow the leader is as much about that inspired confidence than it is a long set of instructions.
You can probably find a sunflower at your local nursery, they are a common item
I agree. I hope not too much is made of it.
I reeeeal scared! Liberals always need someone else to solve their problems instead of depending on their own common sense.
maybe you could remember that you’ve probably done something callous and unkind in the past as well too, and bless the boys for helping you to learn that you have a new level of power in protecting your daughter from the upsets of the world.
That was just plain stupid.
A little too squishy woo-woo for you?
No, just too stupid for me.
If you can’t see that the Freeper was missing the obvious point that he doesn’t have to pass on a neighbor kid’s meanness to his 2yo daughter, that that’s a useful parenting tool for him to have available in the future, and that it’s to his and his daughter’s advantage to be able to bless neighbor children who are his ‘enemy’—then I’m not too worried about your assessment of my stupidity.
Everybody seems to be out.
I have a nice pair already thank you. Gain some compassion for everyone’s sake.
I already (prior to my OP) fully intended to explain this to her, show her what happened and not hide the fact - I also did explain to her early on that flowers don’t live forever and that in time, they too will wither and die.
How much of that do you think a two year old mind understood? I personally don’t know, but I am quite sure that she will be asking about them for months after they are covered with snow, much the same way she asked about all of the Christmas decorations until mid-June this year. She liked them, enjoyed seeing them and missed them when they were gone. No amount of explaining that Christmas only happens in winter quelled her inquiries - she liked the decorations she came to enjoy and wanted to see them all the time.
You seem to forget that I have to deal with not only her, but her mother who is devastated for her - I have to try and keep her emotions in check so that doesn’t play into it as well. I do have to keep the situation in check, I realize that fully - I don’t need someone preemptively barking at me about it however.
Feel free to give constructive advice all you want, but don’t expect that snarky responses won’t get an equally snarky retort either.
Do you have democrats running your city? If so, tell the kid they came and cut it down because of laws and other reasons, then tell the kid that democrat liberals always do that kind of thing. After all that pesuade her to open a lemonade stand on the street corner so she can find out first hand about stupid city laws when it comes to kids.
Hey jerk, I was at work when I posted, but maybe I should’ve used your ethics and just pissed away my time on the company dole and went digging myself while there.
You’re pretty proud of your idiocy - perhaps you’re the liberal.
punk!
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