I have an appletun and a toddler with a HUGE sweet tooth. She’ll be 3 in two months, and her favorite thing to do is play with our appletun.
The problem; should I tell her about appletun’s shedding habits? I’m worried she might take advantage of it and possibly hurt both appletun and herself (too much sugar is bad, of course). That said, I also don’t want her to see appletun shedding its skin one day and freak out.
She ADORES pokémon and learning about them so I’m sure she would love to know more about appletun, but I’m still worried about her and what could go wrong
i think it's really important to be honest with kids about pokemon! trying to hide facts about them can make them seem scary or lead to potentially dangerous situations. explaining how appletun shed to her is a great idea, because it's going to happen eventually, and you don't want her to think something's wrong with her buddy.
you just need to also explain to her that appletun need to shed on their own, and trying to pull their shed off of them can hurt them. and, as with any young child and a pokemon, you need to monitor her anytime she's around your appletun. little kids just don't necessarily have the impulse control and understanding of others' feelings to be left alone with a pokemon! this is a good time for her to learn that sometimes the things we want a pokemon to do aren't possible and could even hurt the pokemon, and that we have to prioritize keeping the pokemon happy over ourselves sometimes.
i'd even recommend telling her about the yummy treats you can make with an appletun skin, and show her that if she finds a shed skin you can cook it together into something extra tasty. that can help cut down on too many shed-skin snacks!
