My suggestion for the poison ivy, in the light of some remarks about hatred, was quite logical, I thought.
My neighbour, the first summer we moved here, pointed out that I had, what she thought was, deadly nightshade growing in the cedars on the side of our property with these great looking black berries. She asked me to tear them up, thinking that her small children would think they could eat them and might. They were on our property but close to the boundary. I tore them up. Didn’t want to take the chance that this would happen.
The same summer, periodically I would see the children, cutting back through the hedge from our yard, carrying handfuls of flowers back to their mom, picked from our garden. Apparently, the lady who used to live here let them do that. I explained that they could pick the flowers, if they asked first. If we weren’t home when they knocked, they would have to wait. And haven’t had a problem since. In fact, the middle child and I often sit outside in the evening, drinking smoothies and watching the pair of bats who nest somewhere in the trees around our yard.
However, if they had not listened to me about the flowers, and if mom was someone that didn’t believe, or care, that her children could never do any wrong, the situation would have been different. The poison ivy could have come into affect.
The bottom line is, parents have to be parents. And if someone tells them, repeatedly, that their children are doing something which is not good, they should do something. If they don’t, perhaps the children will learn not to pick/trample/step on stuff because you just never know what kind of rash may happen. In the long run, you may be doing them a favour.
Nightshade berries are really quite attractive and look edible. If they eat every kind of berry they see, on anyone’s property, a little poison ivy will be the least of their worries.
They should learn that, unless it’s theirs, they really should stay away from it.