So let me just start by saying I loathe fire ants. Despise them. Truly. These are not the sweet, cuddly ants that were so endearing in A Bug’s Life. These are vile, nasty, vicious little beasties that bite down on your tender parts just so they can get a really good grip before they start stinging. I still have the scar on my arm where one got me over the summer … in the pool. No doubt that was retribution for my attempts to wash them off the patio with floods of chlorinated water. (You know what they say about payback.) But starting today, these pests get a pass. It’s all part of the good example – sigh – that I’m trying to set for my 4-year-old.
This is not easy. I have zero-tolerance for anything with more than four legs living in my house. I’ve had plenty of near-misses with black widows and scorpions, not to mention the sun spiders that routinely found their way into our home when we lived in Las Vegas. My husband Stewart assured me that they’re A) harmless and B) eat other bugs. I suppose, on those grounds, I should have embraced them. But understand, these are not adorable Charlotte’s Web spiders. Uh-uh. These things have heft. And hair. They are the Saint Bernards of arachnids. And one horrifying morning, I awoke to find one curled up like a small (albeit eight-legged) puppy … under … the … covers. It had spent the night next to me in bed. My response was to shower it with Raid.
Reasonable, I thought, under the circumstances.
But, as I recently discovered, this attitude just won’t fly at our new preschool, an earthy-crunchy place where they foster an atmosphere of Peaceful Play.
To read more, please click here and follow me over to HealthBistro at Lifescript where I’m guest blogging today and the second Friday of every month about my late-in-life parenting adventures.
And what about you? Have you ever found yourself at odds (even slightly) with what your kid’s school is teaching? If so, please leave a comment at the end of the post — or here — and tell me about it.
And while you’re at Lifescript, take a look around. You’ll find tons of great health info for women there.
Photo credit: Kaphoto
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