Bugs and Kids

Bugs are cool. They really are. If you've never watched something like Buggin with Rudd you are missing out.

That being said, I don't want the damn things crawling on me.

Look, I'll pick up a worm, or a lady bug, or a daddy longlegs (they aren't poisonous) but that is about it. If a spider or a roach gets on me I will squeal like a little girl and run like Osama in Tora Bora.

So, what to do when one of the kids walks over with some hideous looking thing in his hand and tries to give it to me while saying "Daddy, isn't this cool?"

First, I don't want the kid thinking that bugs are not cool. Second, I don't want to pass along my "distaste" (OK, pseudo-phobia) for bugs to the kids. NOTE: I think most parents do not want to pass along their "freaky" tendancies to their kids. At least, I hope they don't.

Again, bugs are cool WHEN THEY ARE NOT FREAKIN' CRAWLING ON ME!

Take a deep breath and think up an excuse to not touch that bug. Something like, "Wow, that's pretty neat, buddy, but daddy's skin has special glands that release acid that will cause that bug to die a horrible death if I try to hold it. It's a good thing you don't have those glands, isn't it?"

Then I run inside and squeal like a little girl.