Storytime Sunday: “Mommy A ‘Pider!”

When my oldest daughter Ysabel, was around 3 years old, we used to live in this old semi-rundown townhome. One afternoon, Ysabel was playing with her toys in her room. She invited me to play with her, I thought it would be fun so I happily accepted. As we were playing with her toys, a spider appeared out of nowhere and fell onto the ground from one of her toys. I noticed it first and it took a second to register what it actually was. Once I realized what it was, being the mature adult in her life, I panicked and yelled “Ysabel what is that?!” She looked at it and immediately realized what it was and screamed at the top of her lungs, she said “mommy a ‘pider!!!!” Leading by example, I ran out of the room first, and she quickly followed behind me. We only made it to the hallway when we started to scream back and forth like we were speaking in our own language. The screaming continued for about 5 more minutes, ending with shaking our bodies off as if the spider was on us. When we finally calmed down, we hesitantly creeped towards her room, she insisted that I enter first to make sure it was safe to be in there, I reluctantly agreed. Slowly, I tipped-toed to the spot where the spider decided to scare us, lo and behold, it was smashed in the carpet with a couple of legs scattered in a nearby area. I am assuming when we bolted for the door, we killed the scary suspect. We were both relieved that the ‘pider didn’t have the chance to bite or crawl on us. I was able to clean any evidence of it from the carpet to assure my three year old that she doesn’t have to fear its return ( well at least that particular one), she felt confident to continue to play with her toys without a disruption from a frightening creepy-crawly. As she was playing with her toys, I went to my bedroom, to quietly reflect on what had just transpired. I was in disbelief that I lacked maturity when my daughter was most vulnerable. I chuckled, and promised myself, next time, I will let her run first…