Do you let little ones play with 'natural' feathers?

I can't decide where I stand on this one. I used to love collecting feathers that I found as a child, and I'm sure I never washed my hands straight after handling them. Now I wince when little ones want to pick up feathers. I usually let them but then make sure they thoroughly wash their hands as soon as possible. I had to draw the line today though, when DD found a disembowelled (sp?) pigeon (was fascinated as 'currently' wants to be a vet) and wanted to take a feather home from the scene :panic:

We have been on two outings recently. One to Kew Gardens, where the leader, who obviously loved nature was insistent that the children didn't touch any feathers, and another outing on our local common where they were touching everything they found - obviously responsibly and within reason. I loved seeing the kids so brave and interactive.

I have googled it and found different opinions. What are your thoughts?

Very good thread. I'm also divided so I'll watch to see other opinions.

I'm with you on this one.

I let children collect feathers from the garden, but I'm more wary about letting them collect them while we're out and about. I'm not sure why though. I'm sure the feathers aren't that much cleaner just because they're in the garden.

When I was young we collected all sorts of things when we were out playing - and we never had baby wipes, hand gels or water to clean our hands afterwards. We'd wash our hands back at home before we ate, but there was no where near the obsession we have now with having to wash the children's hands after they touch anything at all. I don't think we suffered at all. I know I was rarely ill as a child.

I'd be interested to know if there is any particular reason why children shouldn't collect feathers.

We go on lots of treasure hunts where we spot things and point at them rather than picking them up ... I have a few who would put things in their mouths if they picked them up :panic:

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Originally Posted by Mouse

I'm with you on this one.

I let children collect feathers from the garden, but I'm more wary about letting them collect them while we're out and about. I'm not sure why though. I'm sure the feathers aren't that much cleaner just because they're in the garden.When I was young we collected all sorts of things when we were out playing - and we never had baby wipes, hand gels or water to clean our hands afterwards. We'd wash our hands back at home before we ate, but there was no where near the obsession we have now with having to wash the children's hands after they touch anything at all. I don't think we suffered at all. I know I was rarely ill as a child.

I'd be interested to know if there is any particular reason why children shouldn't collect feathers.

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That made me laugh! That's also the kind of logic/rule I apply to many aspects of my life, lol.

I let them it brings them so much joy although i do draw the line at scenes lf death too.

We have chickens so i might be fighting a losing battle if I stopped them.

I don't have a problem with feathers, surely no dirtier than sticks and stones which potentially could have been pee'd on by a dog or other animal!
We wash hands before eating, my own feather-obsessed 4 year old is generally healthy so can't be doing him too much harm and I'm often tickled or stroked with the feathers and end up having to carry them home and also survive ;-)

I think the whole feather thing is a similar thing to the spider thing. We start off as kids with no fear or regard for crawling things or germs, but we hear the (let's face it) women in our childhood lives freaking out at spiders, feathers, licking lamp posts etc so it becomes ingrained in us to freak out when we see spiders, or toddlers picking up feathers, or licking lamp posts....

I blame the mothers and favourite aunties for the internal argument lol.

I tend to let them collect the nice looking ones....which rapidly turn ratty looking in their sweaty little palms.

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Originally Posted by singingcactus

but we hear the (let's face it) women in our childhood lives freaking out at spiders,

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At the weekend we had the outdoor fire burning and I asked my boys (both on their 20s) to get some wood out of the shed. Both of them refused in case there were any spiders in there! Admittedly there were lots of spiders, but I just flicked them out of the way so they didn't end up in the fire.The boys genuinely can't stand them and have actually been known to scream if there's one near them.

I'm not at all bothered by them, so I really don't know where they get their fear from - certainly not from any of the women in their lives! My other son doesn't freak out about them either. He was moving a spider a few weeks back and it bit him, so he's not so keen on moving them with his bare hands now, but certainly isn't frightened of them. I know the fear is normally learned, but I don't know where the older boys have picked it up from.

licking lamp posts ???

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Originally Posted by mama2three

licking lamp posts ???

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That's a new one for me too!

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Originally Posted by Maza

That's a new one for me too!

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New to me too.

My biggest problem is my ds likes to drink puddles.