will you introduce your children and/or nieces and nephews to the invertebrate keeping hobby

in the title

  • yes

    Votes: 138 95.8%
  • no

    Votes: 6 4.2%

  • Total voters
    144

Wolfspidurguy

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 1, 2017
Messages
546
i was talking with someone on a different thread about how they gave there nephew stick insects and i replied with "are you planning on introducing him to the arachnid and/or the carnivorous invertebrate hobby? it would be really cool to see the next generation be a little more understanding and compassionate towards "bugs" because right now the bad wrap us humans gave these guys saddens me and it would be nice to lessen the bug hatred in the world even if its not by that much" and i was wondering what other peoples answer is. i figured that this belonged in the tarantula chat because Ts are invertebrates and most T owners also have some true spiders and other invertebrates
 

Nightstalker47

Arachnoking
Joined
Jul 2, 2016
Messages
2,612
i was talking with someone on a different thread about how they gave there nephew stick insects and i replied with "are you planning on introducing him to the arachnid and/or the carnivorous invertebrate hobby? it would be really cool to see the next generation be a little more understanding and compassionate towards "bugs" because right now the bad wrap us humans gave these guys saddens me and it would be nice to lessen the bug hatred in the world even if its not by that much" and i was wondering what other peoples answer is. i figured that this belonged in the tarantula chat because Ts are invertebrates and most T owners also have some true spiders and other invertebrates
It really doesn't take all that much to turn fear into fascination. I think the most important factor with kids is being charismatic in your approach, show your passion...some really aren't blessed with the longest attention spans. ;) Although big hairy spiders tend to quickly turn that around. Besides, who doesn't like to show off their collection every now and then? My good friends/family are always keen on checking out the Ts when they come over. They get to see what kind of progress was made, who molted, the new additions, etc...and every individual seems to have their own favorite spiders to check out.
 

Nightshady

Dislike Harvester
Joined
Oct 24, 2017
Messages
266
Oddly enough, my 13yo son is who got me into T’s. He wanted one for his bday, and after doing all the research on which one to get him, I decided to get one for myself. Now I have four and he has two, haha.
 

nicodimus22

Arachnomancer
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Sep 26, 2013
Messages
715
No. I would be happy to, but most of my family has already voiced its disapproval of my tarantula keeping. If I tried to push it on the younger members of the family, it would be rejected immediately and create drama. Oh well, their loss.

Edit: I am talking about other people's kids. I don't have any, thank goodness.
 
Last edited:

PanzoN88

Arachnodemon
Joined
Sep 15, 2014
Messages
713
NOOOO!!!!!!! I will not, simply because 1) I have no kids/nieces/nephews, why????? I don't like kids (I can only tolerate to a point), 2) I have no siblings, which means no nieces and nephews.

(P.S. I had to make the above statement sound dramatic).
 

chanda

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 27, 2010
Messages
2,229
Absolutely! I already have - and continue to do so. (My own kids are actually a little tired of it - particularly my older son, who found a couple of escaped feeder roaches in his bathroom. Oops!) While I don't push for them to keep inverts themselves, I have shared my pets with my kids, their friends, my nieces and nephews, and a few cousins - as well as with a lot of other kids. I have also given a few surplus pets away to some of my students - with parental permission, of course!

It was actually kids who got me into the hobby, back when my 15-year-old was in Pre-K. His teacher wanted me to find ladybug larvae and caterpillars for her to use in the classroom when she was teaching the kids about metamorphosis. Along the way, I kept finding other interesting bugs that I thought the kids would like - but as an adult, I couldn't exactly go in and say "Look at this cool bug I found!" so I had to identify them and learn a few facts about each one so I could share those with the kids. It didn't take long for me to get hooked - and now I spend a portion of each summer teaching classes about bugs and spiders to elementary and middle school students.

One of my proudest moments was when I did a bug presentation for a friend's son's birthday party. One of the first guests to arrive was a little girl (maybe 5 or 6 years old?) who was terrified of the bugs and gave the cages a wide berth. I invited her over to meet Bertha - my AF T. stirmi - and spent some time just pointing out how much bigger she (the girl) was than Bertha, how Bertha was actually afraid of her, and generally sharing assorted information about tarantulas. I find with kids that silly little things like giving a tarantula a silly-sounding name or pointing out that the spiders are scared of the kids because they're so big and they're afraid they might eat them, then making the kids promise not to eat my spiders, goes a long ways toward alleviating their fears. By the time the other guests showed up, she was eagerly showing them the cages and making the introductions - and she gladly held the bugs I made available for the kids to handle. (NOT Bertha, obviously! Just some hissing cockroaches, beetles, millipedes - things like that.) Her father couldn't believe she actually wanted to hold the bugs.
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
No. I don't like at all to 'introduce' or else. Choices should be always 'personal' and 'free'. But I will teach everything I know to them, of course, if they will share my same passions/curiousity.
 

JohnR

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 2, 2017
Messages
12
I think my kids' interest to Ts makes me think at least one of them has the potential to keep one when they grow up! And I am happy to give them inheritance from my collection when the time comes :D
 
Last edited:

Wolfspidurguy

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 1, 2017
Messages
546
No. I don't like at all to 'introduce' or else. Choices should be always 'personal' and 'free'. But I will teach everything I know to them, of course, if they will share my same passions/curiousity.
okay i worded the question badly sorry
 

Garth Vader

Arachnobaron
Joined
Jun 25, 2016
Messages
427
My nieces are not very interested and most of my extended family, well they refuse to even LOOK at my tarantula cabinet, much less learn about them. For the most part, they all think it is very weird and they think it is excessive that I have 9 of them (which I think is a modest number). My oldest niece (she is 19) asked a lot of questions about them the last time I saw her, so maybe she will become more interested.

My daughter loves my tarantulas and actually loves crickets even more. She thinks the crickets are cute. She is usually nearby helping me with maintenance and feeding times. Although she did kill a cricket last week by squeezing it while it was still in the plastic petco bag. o_O I was a bit disturbed by that and explained to her that the crickets are important because they feed the spiders. A few days later, she told me she needed to tell the crickets sorry and she was sincere about it, which was cute. Also, one time her daycare told me that she talks about spiders a lot. They thought was just an odd quirky thing and I was like "huh, yeah, wonder why that is!" :D
 

Wolfspidurguy

Arachnobaron
Joined
Feb 1, 2017
Messages
546
My daughter loves my tarantulas and actually loves crickets even more. She thinks the crickets are cute. She is usually nearby helping me with maintenance and feeding times. Although she did kill a cricket last week by squeezing it while it was still in the plastic petco bag. o_O I was a bit disturbed by that and explained to her that the crickets are important because they feed the spiders. A few days later, she told me she needed to tell the crickets sorry and she was sincere about it, which was cute. Also, one time her daycare told me that she talks about spiders a lot. They thought was just an odd quirky thing and I was like "huh, yeah, wonder why that is!" :D
oh my god thats adorable! i cant wait until i have a kid one day to share my love of inverts with. it honestly makes me wish i had some irl friends that kept inverts but all my friends either despise arachnids or are just indifferent, but hey at least i have my online invert keeping friends here on the boards
 

Anoplogaster

Arachnodemon
Joined
Jan 15, 2017
Messages
675
Insects, arachnids, and reptiles were a big part of my childhood. My fascination with them at such an early age earned me a sense of identity as a child. It was my “thing.” I will certainly introduce the next generation to them. Some of my most treasured childhood memories involved discovering things I’d never encountered before. Creatures that are so different from myself. If you withold that experience, you are robbing children of the excitement!
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
Active Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
5,893
Not that I want them around more than absolutely necessary but my neices and nephew love my pets. They're fascinated by them. My oldest neice was bought a leopard gecko because she liked Zeus my Tokay gecko.

They've not got any inverts yet and may not but really enjoy seeing mine.
 

Hellblazer

Arachnosquire
Joined
May 13, 2016
Messages
134
My 14 year old son couldn't care less about them. He wasn't ever interested in the snake collection I had was he was younger either.
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
Active Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2013
Messages
5,893
My 14 year old son couldn't care less about them. He wasn't ever interested in the snake collection I had was he was younger either.
Bloody Nora. He doesn't realise how lucky he is. If my mum had T's I'm sure I wouldn't have had to sneak them into my room.
 

Chris LXXIX

ArachnoGod
Joined
Dec 25, 2014
Messages
5,845
@purplephilia

Would you be gentle enough for explain to me why the 'Sad' rating - which btw I'm not bothered at all but I'm really curious about - by chance? :)

I stand with what I've said: I don't like people that 'introduce' aka low key try to 'impose', to others (no matter if those 'others' are sons/nephews etc) the things they love, no matter the good faith.

I don't have childrens, and I probably would never have. I have a recent born niece, being honest, which I already love, but definitely I wouldn't 'introduce' her to my passions (and for her benefit, also, since already 21 years ago when I was 18 I was already in Italian Police archives as a 'Far Right supporter') nor the things I like/enjoy/love.

She will choose, by herself, which ones to follow, on her life-path... but I will help her, of course, if she (at least as a responsible 'teen') would love to know more and try. Moved and only if moved, by her pure, genuine curiousity only.
 

purplephilia

Arachnolurker
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
15
@purplephilia

Would you be gentle enough for explain to me why the 'Sad' rating - which btw I'm not bothered at all but I'm really curious about - by chance? :)

I stand with what I've said: I don't like people that 'introduce' aka low key try to 'impose', to others (no matter if those 'others' are sons/nephews etc) the things they love, no matter the good faith.

I don't have childrens, and I probably would never have. I have a recent born niece, being honest, which I already love, but definitely I wouldn't 'introduce' her to my passions (and for her benefit, also, since already 21 years ago when I was 18 I was already in Italian Police archives as a 'Far Right supporter') nor the things I like/enjoy/love.

She will choose, by herself, which ones to follow, on her life-path... but I will help her, of course, if she (at least as a responsible 'teen') would love to know more and try. Moved and only if moved, by her pure, genuine curiousity only.
I like to introduce things to people if I think they'll like it, and what if someone never knew that they would like tarantulas? I think imposing and introducing are different things. My nephews don't live in the same state as me but if they did I would say something like, "Hey want to see something cool?" If they didn't like it then I wouldn't force or impose anything on them, but what if they actually did think it was really cool?

I have 2 snakes and my boyfriend is really afraid of them so I respect that and don't tell him to try to hold them or anything. Sometimes I'll hold them in another room where he can see me from where he's sitting lol (he's okay with that). And when he sees me holding them it has gotten his curiosity up and he has held my Brazilian rainbow boa (he asked me if he could hold it) and likes it, but he's afraid of my ball python because "it's so big" (it's still quite young though lol). So I don't go anywhere near him with the bp (sometimes I send him pictures of the bp doing what bp's are known for--curling up and looking shy :D). If I DID try to cajole him into holding my snakes, that would be imposition. I think that's different than introducing something. :) (@Chris LXXIX )
 
Last edited:
Top