Quote:
Originally posted by Traute:
Cats, because they're proud and independent!
(Spiders have my utmost respect, because both my mother and my daughter are scared witless by them, a thing I couldn't achieve if I tried, though I won't!)
Traute
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I was phobic (genuinely phobic, not just scared) of spiders until my children were toddlers. I did not want them to suffer as I did, so I would take my children into the garden, look for SMALL and prettily marked spiders and point them out to my children with remarks like "Oh! Look! What a pretty spider! Isn't it lovely?". I graduated to picking up
MINUTE spiders (I couldn't see how repulsive very tiny ones looked!), and letting them walk on the palm of my hand (with the skin on my palm doing its best to escape to the back of my hand!) and showing them to the children, and encouraging them to let the tiny spider walk on their hands, too. Over several years I got to be able to pick up bigger and bigger spiders (but nothing bigger than the average English house-spider) and I am now the person in our family called in to remove spiders from various family homes if I am around.
Did my tactic with my children succeed? NO! They are all scared of spiders! But not phobic. I saved 'em from that, at least, lol!
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Smile! Life is too short for bitching!
Fljotsdale
[This message has been edited by Fljotsdale (edited 05-19-2001).]