Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Arachnaphobia

Help me now, for my daughter is becoming a girly-girl. Not the frills and lace, or the ballet and princesses. Oh no, that is fine. She adores all things girly and I love that about her. What I am complaining about is her recent fear:

Spiders.

heard just moments ago as I sat down at the computer for a few minutes...

"AAAYYIIIEEEE!!!!! MommmmEEEE!!!!!"

I ran in and found her, tear-streaked and shaking,

"A spider! A big black spider unner da COUCH!!! Aaahhhiieee!!!!"

Trying not to laugh, I held her and attempted to calm her fears...

"Honey! Honey, it's ok! A spider is so tiny and has cute, little tickly legs! They can't hurt you. I know, let's find him and put him outside, ok?"

to which she replied...

"NOoooOOO NooooOO!!! Not outside! Not by my swingset!!"

Sigh.

I managed to bring her around a bit, though. In fact, she just came in and asked where the big black spider was and I said he was probably hiding or sleeping outside by now. But I asked what we should do with him if we saw him again, and she smiled tentatively.

"We can hold him in our hands, and give him some food?"

Uh, yeah. After all of my work to get her to get over this fear of spiders, I hate to tell her that there is NO WAY I am holding a spider in my hands. No way. No how, kiddo. Remember this? I WILL try to scrape him up to release him outside, but if that little bugger heads towards me he is going to be a big black smear on the carpet.

That's all I have to say.

11 comments:

Sarah said...

Violet has also developed a fear of all bugs. She ran screaming through the yard Sunday, on account of the butterfly that was chasing her. As far as I remember, I have never freaked out about a bug in front of her. Not likely, since I don't really care about bugs.

Jane of Seagull Fountain said...

Funny!

My girls have been complaining about spiders in their bedroom lately, but it's always right at bedtime, so I'm just a little suspicious as to whether they're really scared.

Kristi said...

Awww.. she wants to adopt the spider. That's cute. Maybe she'll want an ant farm next!

Unknown said...

Yeah we tell them not to be afraid but then we certainly don't want ANYTHING to do with them either! HA!

I had the same situation with a wasp that got in the house the other day - not fun.

Kamis Khlopchyk said...

I am the same way and I wonder why my son screams like a little girl everytime he sees something that might resemble a bug.

:-)

Black smears all the way baby!

Hannah said...

I'm sure there are plenty of boys who don't like bugs, so perhaps it's just a "kid" thing rather than a "girly girl" thing?
I don't hate bugs but I don't love them, either. My boys are lucky that their Dad has NO fear, so as long as he's around to "deal with" things like this, they should be fine!

Mighty Morphin' Mama said...

My girly is doing this too! She has 3 big brothers who gather and study bugs and she freaks out whenever she sees one. You should have heard the shrieks when an ant ran over her toe.
I hope she gets over it soon.
But I hate them too.

Janet said...

One of my best friends is still terrified of spiders, at the tender age of 36. Something about big brother throwing them at her when she was young. Whatever. ;)

Alex Elliot said...

I know I shouldn't laugh, but that part about holding him and feeding him is really funny! Funny of course because my sons aren't asking me to do it of course!

Don Mills Diva said...

Was that a little fear I detected in those last words? Maybe the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...:-)

Melissa said...

I'm afraid that I have instilled a fear of spiders in my kids on purpose. You see, Baby Girl loves bugs. She loves to pick them up and hold them... and we have Black Widows. Lots of them... and she was starting to show interest in them. :S

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