Dec 8, 2008

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

I am not sure there is a special quote in English for spiders. Here we usually say (I don't know why) : " Araignee du matin, chagrin. Araignee du soir, espoir". I don't know why there is a difference in your life wether you meet the spider on the morning or on the evening !
Anyway, today it was "hope" although it could also be "mommy-I-am-so-freaking-I-can't-sleep".
Right after reading "If you give a mouse a cookie", I started making "action linked to a thought linked to an action, etc". My first idea was to tell you that I was going to post tonight and couldn't because my son freaked so much. I lost dozens of minutes trying to catch the spider and I didn't because she is stucked to the ceiling and I am really not that tall, even on a chair !
But, as you will read, I got caught into posting !!

I have a special link with spiders. I was telling my daughter that when I was around 7, when I was really really not behaving good, my mother will put me in time-out in the stairs of the cave. We were in a really old house so the cave was really scary. Dust everywhere, few light bulbs, and lots of spider webs and scary black huge spiders. Now that I look back with my eyes of adult and especially seeing my daughter's reaction (completely frozen with very round eyes !), I think that maybe my mom didn't read any book about positive discipline !
Besides these spooky times-out, I think I tried being really brave and making friend with spider. I tried...At least, I am not that scared of them now but still...if it's too big, I freak !
The two spiders (that might explain why he freaked so much) were tiny tiny little spiders. I said "She is a baby, she won't do any harm to you, just let her around". As he started rolling his eyes trying to see behind his back while I was brushing his teeths, I explained all about why spiders needed some warm places during winter. No success...

I explained him I didn't want to harm the tiny spider so I tried to catch her on a piece of paper to throw her out. That's how I lost some credibility because I thought I did but...I didn't.
While he was rolling his eyes, he saw her climbing up the spout again, I mean the door ! So I tried again, she just felt down with a piece of web ! I finally ejected her on the roof. I was feeling proud but I heard "mooooooomy, a spider again. There she was, the exact twin of the first one. Stuck on the ceiling. I tried to move her down with a towel but I couldn't. My son thought for a few minutes that I lured him and that she was back (and not outside on the roof). I explained myself but it was worse, it started to look like a spider invasion. Then, she wasn't moving so I said" we're good, I think I smashed her accidentally, she is so tiny". 5 minutes after, she had moved 5 cm !!! I was definitively not credible anymore ! I told him that she is moving since the beginning toward our bedroom and not his but he only heard "moving" !
With that kind of scary fellings, I guess you are not rational, you don't listen anymore...especially if you are under 5 !
Well, I am not sure we'll both a good night of sleep. He's like me and as a kid, I was capable not to sleep and keep the light on all night...I'll keep you posted !

2 comments:

Isabelle said...

J'ai aussi mon lot d'arachnophobes à la maison!
La seule solution pour atteindre une araignée tout là-haut, c'est de l'aspirer avec l'aspirateur. Je sais, c'est très politiquement incorrect, mais je n'ai pas trouvé mieux pour couper court aux drames en puissance...
Bon courage pour la suite :)

Marie said...

En effet, mais si elle ressort par le tuyau ???!!!!