Kids Brought Home a Baby Snake Found Outside—Until She Had to Explain Why It Couldn’t Be Kept as a Pet
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Kids love finding various animals out in the wild, and in many cases, they want to try to keep them as pets.
What would you do if some neighbor kids came over with a tiny snake to show you, and they started asking you questions about how to take care of it?
That is what happened to the woman in this story, and since she kept snakes herself, she knew enough to tell them that they were not equipped to care for the snake and they should let it go. This, of course, upset the kids, and even their father got mad at what she said, so she wonders if she should have encouraged them to keep it instead.
I think she did the right thing. Read through the full story and see if you agree.
AITAH for telling my neighbor they couldn’t keep a snake as a pet?
I live in a relatively small neighborhood and It’s a tight-knit community.
Kids love finding snakes and other critters in the wild.
My next-door neighbors are a family with a teenager and a boy about 5. Today, they called me over to look at a baby snake they had found on a hike (the woods are like 20 minutes away).
They had this tiny little baby snake in a tuberware container. The container was amybe 4 inches in diameter and 1 inch tall. The baby seemed litterally newborn. For context, I have a corn snake, which is why they called me over.
If they can give it a good home, then it is fine. But kids generally don’t do a good job taking care of things.
They kept talking to me like they were planning on keeping it, asking questions like, “So, where do we keep him?” or “What should we feed them?”.
I started to get uncomftorable because they were not in a position to take care of it.
She doesn’t want the baby snake to suffer and die.
The boy had been over to my house every now and then because I would babysit him. He had seen my snake and decided that he wanted one too.
I looked at the dad and I told him that it just wasn’t plausible. Snakes require a decent amount of preperation before getting them, and baby snakes especially are hard to look after.
Good advice is often hard to take.
This little guy was so small he really shouldn’t have been owned by anyone but a breeder, but even then he was wild.
I told him that if he wanted a snake, he should do research and prepare, in addition to getting an older snake.
They sound like spoiled little kids.
He got annoyed with me and said that he could handle a snake. The boy started crying and yelling about how he want this snake speciffically.
The dad told me that I should leave for now, until I could be happy for the little boy and his new pet. The boy seemed really upset that I said he shouldn’t keep the snake.
AITAH?
She did the right thing, and from what is written here, she even did it in a kind way. Kids don’t take disappointment well, and it seems like their dad isn’t teaching them a good lesson.
Read on to see what the people in the comments have to say about it.
This might be taking things too far.
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Caring for a snake is not cheap.
Catching wild animals is not a good idea, according to this commenter.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an artist who made sure to leave the walls of her home blank and boring before moving out, even though they were covered with gorgeous murals before then.
Learning lessons is often painful.
They asked for advice, and she gave it.
She did the right thing by trying to teach the kids responsibility. Unfortunately, their father only cared about the instant gratification of keeping a snake they caught.
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