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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand WHY?

31 replies

MsUndastood · 07/07/2009 00:11

People are scared of spiders???

They kill the nasty germ ridden flys, we should be celebrating them, otherwise we would be overrun with puke sucking, shit walking flies that pass germs onto everything they touch.

I

OP posts:
BananaFruitBat · 07/07/2009 00:16

It's because the little buggers race at you at top speed and race off again. I can't stand the little shits in the house, have an uneasy truce with them in the garage and laundry room, but outside is theirs to enjoy.

CherryChoc · 07/07/2009 00:18

I have no idea. I hate spiders, hate flies more, just don't like the idea of a spider crawling on me. I wouldn't mind them if they sat in the corner and ate flies but they don't, they disappear unnervingly!

giraffescantdancethetango · 07/07/2009 00:20

Its the way they scuttle and dangle. A beetle or a fly would never climb on your shoulder and run down your top

thederkinsdame · 07/07/2009 00:21

I don't mind them as much as I used to, but I still when you find enormous ones that run really fast...

Bleatblurt · 07/07/2009 00:23

That'll be my thread you are getting AIBU inspiration from then?!

I don't know WHY I just AM.

Original poster
MsUndastood · 07/07/2009 00:25

Wasn't meant to offend butterball, I always wonder, especially when my sister sprints out of the house at the sight of a money spider (no exageration)

I quite like them and find them fascinating, in fact used to keep a tarantula

OP posts:
SomeGuy · 07/07/2009 00:29

Some of them are deadly. And they don't look cute, like ladybirds.

Bleatblurt · 07/07/2009 00:29

I'm not offended.

at tarantula.

It's the hairy ones that scare me the most.

And actually I do know why I'm scared. It's my mothers fault. If she hadn't freaked out at them then I wouldn't have picked up on it and seem spiders/insects as something to be afraid of.

So actually it was the first person to be scared of spiders fault. They have passed it down over the generations.

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 07/07/2009 00:32

I think the fear is so common, and can be so utterly irrational, that it's probably to do with the more primitive parts of our brains. A quick, darting motion seen only in the corner of your eye could so easily be a venomous snake, carniverous predators getting ready to attack... but in the UK it's most likely to be some sort of utterly harmless spider.

I've always been ok with very tiny spiders, went through a bad phase when I accidentally touched (held in my hand) a spider, and when DS1 was born I decided that I had to pretend not to be scared of spiders when he was around. I've been faking for 22 years now and am quite comfortable with them in the house - but I couldn't pick one up and put it outside.

looks at cobwebs on ceilings

Original poster
MsUndastood · 07/07/2009 00:32

I have always picked such things up and shown them to DS, but I need to stop it because he keeps trying to pick them up now, he tried to pick up a bee the other day

He will learn though

My mum and dad have brought me and my sister up exactly the same and she is pertified of spiders and i love anything like that.

OP posts:
OldLadyKnowsNothing · 07/07/2009 00:33

An apposite x post with Butterball.

Original poster
MsUndastood · 07/07/2009 00:38

I'll tell you a story actually

My sister used to come and stay with me and used to love all the water dragons/geckos/different types of snakes we had, and for some reason I thought she would love a taratula for christmas, I had been living away for a while so had forgotten about here fear (and i don't think it used to be that bad) and also i don't think she could have seen mine at home.

Anyway, i buy her a little tank and tarantula and keep it under my bed and feed it until christmas, only just managing to keep her away.

Christmas day comes, and i had her the wrapped tank and tell her to be careful of it, she realises it's a pet and gets really excited, she rips off the paper, looks inside, spots the hiding spider and runs out of the house and screams on the driveway.

I really did nearly PMSL [cruel sister emoticon]

But I did sell the tarantula and tank for twice what i bought it and got her a better present.

OP posts:
Pan · 07/07/2009 00:39

It's all to do with an abhorence and fear of things that don't resemblance humans at all.

We can deal with really scary things that have four legs, or two, a face we recognise, a design that we can attach to. Habits we see in ourselves.

Spiders don't "do" any of these. Too many legs, too many eyes, no real face, hide in dark places away from us.

That sort of thing.

thumbwitch · 07/07/2009 01:15

I like spiders, even the big hairy ones. But I don't do beetles (except ladybirds which don't count )

Once I went on holiday with a bunch of friends - a couple of the blokes thought it would be really funny to wind up the girls and caught a daddy long legs first and put it in my t-shirt - I sighed, hoicked it out and said v. funny. So they grabbed a green beetle and put it on my mate's tummy. She sighed, picked it off and said ha ha, v. funny.

IF only they had known to do it the other way around, they would have got exactly the screaming girly reaction they were after from both of us!

ha ha

sunnydelight · 07/07/2009 03:34

I was terrified of spiders all my life, little things the size of a fingernail would send me screaming.

Now I live in Sydney. I know there are funnelwebs under my house and redbacks in my garden and I just automatically squash anything with 8 legs (apart from the huntsmen of course because they're usually the size of dinner plates ) because otherwise I'd spend my life in a state of perpetual terror.

That's the thing about phobias, they just aren't rational!

ninedragons · 07/07/2009 04:24

PMSL at the tarantula for Christmas. That's got to rival knicker elastic as the worst present ever.

Flynnie · 07/07/2009 07:29

I could have killed dh. After years of him coming to the rescue whenever there was a spider in the house I found out that he was putting the little blighters behind the sofa! 'So that they would be nice and warm' apparently

Mind you I would take a spider anyday over mosquitos, Crane flies or those massive flying beetles.....

melmog · 07/07/2009 07:41

I don't mind spiders as although they can run, they can't fly.

It's those hideous daddy long legs I can't stand. Possibly due to swallowing one during a cross country run at school!

I don't think I'd even mind them so much if they knew how to fly in a flipping straight line. Stupid, crispy, wafty things. Always going right for my face and hair.

MamaLazarou · 07/07/2009 08:00

They just have too many legs.

They don't need to have so many legs. They just do it to freak us out.

Horrible, spindly creatures.

Daddy longlegses I don't mind, as they are feeble and easily crushed.

LaurieFairyCake · 07/07/2009 08:06

sunnydelight - so you kill all the ones that fit under your foot like redbacks and funnel webs - what the hell do you do to one the size of a dinner plate ??????!!!!!????

Have it for breakfast??

SerendipitousHarlot · 07/07/2009 08:38

Even reading this thread is making me shudder

Mammina · 07/07/2009 08:48

Can I ask whether people who are scared of spiders show their DCs that they are scared of them or not? I grew up in the country & am not bothered in the slightest about spiders, but cityboy DH is terrified but I tell him off if he squeals in front of DD because surely that will just pass on the fear..

TheChilliMoose · 07/07/2009 08:52

I like spiders. Not enough to want to be friends or anything, but enough to appreciate that they eat the pesky flies and therefore welcome in my house.

Bleatblurt · 07/07/2009 08:53

I used to try not to show my DC's but it was impossible. So now with my eldest we've spoken about it and how I'm scared but I can't help it but really there's nothing to be afraid of. My DH isn't bothered by spiders so he's showed them spiders and made sure they realise there's nothing to be scared of.

Just yesterday I bought DS1 a bug-catcher thingy so that he could catch stuff and see it up close. DH will be doing it with him of course.

TrinityRhino · 07/07/2009 08:56

I cant stand them but I try my very hardest not to show the fear to my dcs

my eldest doesn't like them I dont think I managed to hide it from her properly when she was young (depression and panic undiagnosed at the time)

dh has no fear whatsoever and he just squished between his fingers any spiders we find even ones the size of my 2 year olds hand!

hes looks sooo brave to me when he does that