Humor Your Kid

wikimedia.org

It finally happened.

I found a black widow spider in the house.

Mere inches from a daily-used toy box in the living room.

! ! ! ! ! ! !

For all the widow infestations we've been having outside during the summers since we've lived here, I've always been looking out for telltale signs of that spider breed's existence in the house. But I must have thought we had been keeping them out alright since I hadn't spotted any. Up until this point, that is.

This morning, Caden was jumping happily in his jumper and Gwen was looking for toys to play with in the living room. Ah, now was my chance to finally get my breakfast and coffee and get my day started.

"Pchzz ... Pchzz ... Pchzz ..." Went Gwen, in what I couldn't tell was a request for cheese or a "please" asking me for something else. Now, Gwen? But my coffee is done brewing! She kept Pchzz-ing, so I figured I would delay my caffeine intake to see what she wanted. She was asking nicely, after all, so I ought to at least humor her and help her with what was likely a toy request.

She led me to the bookshelf right next to the toy box and pointed vaguely and kept pchzz-ing. "Cheese?" I asked her, wondering if she had thrown her plastic toy cheese into the back of the bookshelf, when I then saw the dastardly spider hanging out in his well-established not-so-little web in the enclave of the bookshelf, stereo and wall. I simultaneously swore and thanked God at the same time (is that possible?) ushered Gwen to her high chair without trying to let her to pick up on my slight panic, and went back with a can of bug spray and a fly swatter to make history.

The moral of the story is this: humor your kid. Engage with them even if it means putting off your cuppa for another minute. It may only be a matter of plastic cheese, or of practicing non-specific pleases; but it could be a heaven-sent appointment to bring to your attention a danger in your home to deal with.

The other moral of the story is this: If you live in an area where bad bugs live, grab a flashlight and go hunting in your home on a regular basis to keep you and your family safe.

Thus concludes this public service announcement. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Since the above...

And I would like to add that because of this morning's discovery, I went hunting and found more webs and 3 black widows in my kitchen. Have you peeked under the edges of your kitchen cabinets lately?