Yep, agreeing with all the others Lori. If it helps I'm an educated child development professional. As Stefan so simply put... you are right, they are wrong. They are damaging their child by not allowing him to experience the world. The first 5 years, and the first 3 especially are the most important years for brain development. His brain will never again be able to learn and develop opinions about the outside world as it will right now. Now is the time that he should be touching, feeling, problem solving, experiencing EVERYTHING that they can possibly provide for him to experience.... sigh... not that it'll matter much the way the American school system is set up. As long as he can memorize books he'll be fine in school.... sigh...

Oh, it's also been proven that the more things, dirt and animals especially , that children are exposed to the less likely they are to have asthma and allergies

I'm still pissed, tho. How can they look at that little smiling face, seeing grandma obviously in the background and knowing you have the camera, and possibly think it wasn't a good experience for him? It's not like you threw him over the fence and went back inside. Ugh. Sorry you have to deal with them and even more sorry the poor kiddo can't enjoy the world.