I did when I was a kid. Used to spend hours torturing insects. And I did think they probably felt pain in some way. I ended up well-adjusted, but kids are little psychopaths. These days I escort bugs out of the house if they are being bothersome, and otherwise just let them be their bad ol’ self.
This is tough to read but I feel sympathetic about the honest way you shared this.
I have heard this from others too. One of my most traumatic memories from childhood was seeing someone do something to one of my favorite kinds of animals that I will spare readers here the horror of imagining. It haunts me to this day. That colors my perspective.
Children have incomplete brain formation. I’m not sure it’s an excuse, but it’s context to understand. On the flip side, a parent would need to be helicoptering to an absurd extent to detect a child messing with something as small as most common insects (at least in most US places).
