[dentente]

Oh man. We found a cute, fat caterpillar in the garden. Watched him progress up the wall for awhile. Went back to doing watercolors. Went to check on him and he had become a spider's dinner. Dd was frantic! "Save him!" "Mama, the spider hurted him!" Tears. Howling. Removal from the garden to chill out and cry in bed for awhile. Lots of hugs. A gentle and general explanation that spiders do eat things like cute caterpillar.

Dd is absolutely traumatized. She likes spiders. She likes caterpillars. Now she is horribly scared of spiders and made me check the bedroom for them before falling fretfully to sleep. She's 2.5 on Friday.

Just

My poor baby.

*sigh*

Denny

 

[MomtoEmily&Lauren]

I don't know what to tell you but that is just so cute that she wanted you to save the spider!

 

[homesteader]

i don't know of any books right off hand but this might be a way to help her through it. not a book about spiders but more along the lines of "the food chain". eagles & birds of prey eat small cute animals & she's probably not going to be afraid of them. of course they aren't small & could be under her bed. it sounds like you've already started this by explaining to her that the caterpiller is the spider's food.

this is definately one of my fears...my son becoming afraid of the small critters. caution is one thing b/c some can be harmful, fear is another thing. good luck!