Ladybugs

Here's my daughter, Mazzy, with a ladybug back in 2009 at 2.5 years old...

My son, Max (also 2.5 years old)  had quite a different experience with the red spotted lady recently. It might have been due to the fact that Mazzy was solely focusing on one dainty little bug, while my son was exposed to, shall we say, 822!!!

A little less than a week ago, I picked up a few little lady bugs to help rid our garden of the 8 million aphids that found shelter in our rose bushes. I came home happily carrying the bag of ladybugs thinking to myself what a fun little activity for the kids to help with - scattering the harmless, pleasant,  dare I say DARN CUTE insects.

Well, it started off fine. Josh went from rose to rose, merrily sprinkling away. The kids just recently were gifted bug collector sets from Grandma Kris and Mazzy thought it would be fun to try and wrangle a few ladybugs into her bug collector chamber.

Maxton watched cautiously while Mazzy managed to round up a couple into her chamber. (I could tell that he was feeling a little anxious. He would let out a high-pitched scream every so often if he saw a ladybug move a little faster than usual across the cement.) A few minutes later as Max was moving his boot away to get a closer look at a ladybug, that had crept underneath, a leaf fell from inside the boot and landed on Max. Max, thinking the leaf was a huge gigantic over sized DEADLY ladybug, started to panic - his limbs stiffened , his body shook. I carried him into my arms and took him inside. He began to calm down and I distracted him by offering to set him down in Mazzy's room to play. This lasted only a minute before he "saw" THE BIG BUG on his shirt. He went into hysterics again. I noticed his eyes scanning every inch of his clothing, the room, the house for THE BIG BUG. My son was hysterical and so very frightened. It frightened me to see him this way. The guilt set in quickly and I was worried I had created what would be a lifelong phobia of "bugs" for my Mister Man.

The evening involved a series of cuddling sessions and reassuring chats about the ladybugs going to sleep OUTSIDE FAR FAR AWAY. He went to bed much later than usual.  I had to go into his room, repeatedly, to comfort and soothe his anxiety. Gah! Both my husband and I were worried.  My husband thinks I worry too much about everything, so the fact that he was worried worried me to no end. And the downward spiral was in effect.

My Facebook status that evening.

That night we waited for him to wake up screaming and terrified that the BUGS WERE ASCENDING!! To our surprise and relief he slept soundly through the night. That next morning, I wrote on Facebook:

It seems the total hysteria over bugs has calmed a bit in our house, but I'm holding my breath. Max will venture outside (which, I have to say, I was convinced he wouldn't ever go outside again!) but when a HUGE GIGANTIC gnat lands on his arm I am summoned immediately to remove it from his vicinity.


(I'm more than happy to do that for you, Buddy Man. So sorry the ladybugs scared you.)