Isaac on Bugs

Isaac has recently developed a fear of bugs (which I am trying to discourage by being very casual about it, and letting him know that things like ants and flies won’t hurt him). But he’s come up with some rather funny ideas about bugs lately. He is not only convinced that bugs are poisonous, but that they are trying to get him. If he sees a spider in the basement playroom, I tell him to just play in a different area until I can come get it, but he informs me that he can’t go near it because it is trying to trick him.

Last week we had to pull over on our drive to the library because Isaac said there was a bee in the car. He was rather upset, and told me the bee was red and yellow and black and that he could see the poison ivy in it’s mouth. I calmly stopped the car and shooed it out – it was actually a large grey fly.

This morning we had this little conversation:
Isaac: I know how spiders get into our house, Mommy.
Me: How?
Isaac: They come in through the little hole by the garage door.
Me: But how do they get into the house? There are no holes into the house from the garage.
Isaac: They go around to the door in the front and unlock it.
Me: But spiders can’t open doors.
Isaac: Of course they can, Mommy. They have hands!

He also told me that he had seen another bee. He informed me that it was red, and blue, and yellow, but that that one didn’t have any poison in it’s mouth and that it wasn’t trying to trick him.

This is a pretty big contrast with the rest of my boys, who, if they see a spider in the house, they just go get some tissue and take care of it themselves without any help from me. Hopefully Isaac’s little fear of bugs is just a stage he will outgrow.