This summer I had a quest. My quest was this: to get over my fear of all things both creepy and crawly. Why now, after 30 years of being a squeemish girly girl? It became quite clear to me about mid-July that I had passed on my full body shiver responses to my 5 year old son who in turn was doing a great job passing them on to his 3 year old sister. But, in true kid fashion, he was doing more than just imitating me. He was surpassing my dislike of bugs and snakes by going into a full on terror. A bee would sent him into a panic attack. A stink bug in blocking our house door would have him in a quandry- would he brave going past said bug or instead brave the outdoors with the other bugs. I was worried for him because he would be starting school at the end of the summer and I feared I had raised a child who would be getting beat up every recess after running from ants on the school grounds.
I knew I had to beat my own fears first. Sooo.... I started taking pictures. Mostly of two friendly house spiders who we eventually named Charlie and Fred. I braved getting as close as I could to them, fully expecting them to jump into my face and start sucking and biting my eyes out. To my delight, they did not. Not even once. My children quivered as they watched me... but they could not look away. One day my husband decided that Fred looked hungry so he caught a grasshopper and threw into into Fred's web. Fred immediately jumped on the bug and began to wrap him in his folds. Fred had our total attention. It became a daily delight for us to watch as Fred devoured the grasshoppers that we caught for him (and when I say "we" exclude the kids... it was one thing to watch grasshoppers getting eatten but quite another to touch them). The kids started to really enjoy having, of all things, a pet spider. And I got a lot of great shots of him too.
We are still working on our fears. Right now the kids have jars with crickets and spiders. Next summer maybe we can put a bee in there to. Anything to make it just an interesting little fellow creature who you just have to be a little cautious around.
