Scared of Bugs? Not anymore!!!

I really like sitting on our back porch.  And I don't think it's too much to ask that the kids play by themselves for ten minutes occasionally so that I get to kick up my feet and sip my tea.  Unfortunately, the kids disagree with me.  They feel that it is, in fact, way too much to ask.  Every time I get my tea just to the right temperature and start to take a sip I hear, "MOMMY!  I need help!!!"  At this point they are usually inside their little playhouse where I can't see them, so I fall for it every time.

I go running and 9 times out of 10 the emergency is related to bugs. 

Munchkin says:  "Mommy!  I think there is a spider in here!"

I say: "Really?  Where?"

Munchkin looks around diligently: "Well, I saw it a minute ago.  I think I heard it go that way."

I say:  "You can't really hear spiders.  I think you'll be okay."

Just as I sit back down, I hear it again, "Mommy!!! I need help!!"

So I recently decided I needed to take matters into my own hands.  I needed to cure Munchkin Girl's fear of bugs, especially since I feel that it is mostly to get my attention and sabotage my need for relaxation. I bought her a magnifying glass and one afternoon while Little Buddy was sleeping, I told her we were going on and adventure in our backyard.  She was intrigued until I told her we were going to look for bugs and spiders.

"But Mommy, I'm scared of bugs!"

"Don't worry," I told her.  "I think you're going to be surprised.  Bugs are really interesting.  They all have different legs and bodies and do different things."

I have to admit that I don't know much about bugs so that's about as scientific as we got.  However, the first time she spotted an ant through a microscope, and saw the two separate bodies and how busy the ant was, she was hooked.


We spent over thirty minutes in the backyard wandering around with the magnifying glass, inspecting everything we found from mulch, to all the bugs, to worms, to the tiny pieces of plastic the dogs had chewed up several months before.  I even had time to sneak in a cup of tea while she was occupied!

A few days later, we spotted some kind of long caterpillar on our driveway.  I pointed it out to her and I am proud to say that she scampered to the ground and spent another thirty minutes following that caterpillar all over our driveway.  She wasn't one bit scared of it.


In fact, on our recent trip to Florida she kept trying to catch the lizards.  Our learning may have gone too far.  We might need to buy a book from the library about what is nice and what isn't, but for now, I'm just happy to minimize the amount of times per day I have to hear "MOMMY!" in a screeching voice.



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