This newsflash brought to you by my middle child. I’ve mentioned before his total fear of spiders…it’s the time of year for wolf spiders to find their way inside, so there’s been a lot of screaming in terror lately. He stands frozen wherever he is until someone comes and smooshes the spider. To be fair, they are HUGE. I don’t remember encountering spiders like this anywhere else we’ve lived and even I needed some adjustment the first time I saw one. After researching, I’ve found that they are harmless unless provoked so I prefer to let them live their spidery lives and kill other household bugs but when there’s one terrorizing my 3 year old, simply by existing, I tend to kill them simply to stop the screaming.
Last night we went shopping in Cary (Toys R Us, Kohl’s, and Target…I needed a very stiff drink by the time we finished!) and while we were in the car driving home, he asked me what spiders like.
Me: “Bugs.”
C: “What kind of bugs?”
M: “Oh, I don’t know…flies, ants, beetles…whatever gets caught in their web.* But not little boys. Little boys are too big for a spider to eat.”
C: “Yeah, little boys are yucky.”
It had been a long rough night, and my husband and I were seriously ready to come home and list our children on eBay. But for some reason, this had us both laughing hysterically. It was some desperately needed levity in what had been a nightmarish evening. You can always count on these kids to drive you to the brink of insanity and then snapping you right back to reality by reminding you how much joy they really bring to your life. I am so very lucky to have them!
*Yes, I know wolf spiders don’t build webs, this was just easier to explain than a spider leaping on it’s prey and debilitating it with venom before devouring it.
