A Crash Course, In Spider Training.

When I met Paul, he had lots of animals and pets, including rats, monitor lizard, very large cockroaches, a crow, a German shepherd, four large snakes, scorpions and more. He also had fifty tarantulas. MERCY!

The tarantulas, they were all different types, he even had the goliath one, so to give you the idea of the size, take your dinner plate the goliath placed on there, it will cover the whole place with its legs all the way round. That’s BIG.

I have always been afraid of spiders. Why is there SO many of us who are afraid of them? I have never been attacked by one, nor do I know of anyone here in the UK that has been either.

I have killed many of them in my life, and it is sad for them, those who catch them in a glass, how brave are they? In the last ten years or so I have tried not to kill them, as it’s not their fault that they are a spider. They don’t want to die, just like I don’t. so, I have tried to see it from their perspective. We have six cats, I have seen them catch and eat in the house, moths, flies and spiders!

One thing I didn’t want to do was pass on my fear to my children. Sadly, I failed in that department as a Mother! They are more terrified of them, than I am. So, I’m going to blame my Husband, he should have taught them as babies to pick up the spiders and kiss them and love them. So, I think instead of beating myself up for failing them, I will pass the buck on to Paul.

I remember when the kids were little about age three, there was a spider on the window, thank goodness we didn’t have double glazing then, Paul was at work, I didn’t know what to do so I did the unthinkable, I did the unbelievable, I could see it against the window, so with the net curtain and also the thick burgundy curtain, using my Son’s hand and not mine, as he was too young to have fear, I held his tiny hand and pushed it onto to spider, to kill it! To my complete horror, I pushed that hard, his hand went through the window, smashing it! He wasn’t hurt at all, and I don’t know where the spider went, probably escaped outside, covered in glass.

We couldn’t afford a new window for ages, so the smashed bit was taped up with cardboard.

I once heard of someone driving and a spider came down in front of them, and they crashed the car, and died! You just don’t know how you gonna leave this world.

A few days ago, when one of my kids was a sleep, because they had been on nights. Just outside their bedroom is a clothes basket, of our clean clothes, that is to be put away…. Eventually. It is a fix fixture and is always there on the landing in the corner, on its own little unit, we add clean clothes and we take away clean clothes. The bath was running, I lift up a t-shirt and as fast as you like, it was the biggest Spider I had seen in a very long time. Somehow the mothering instinct in me, stopped me from SCREAMING at the top of my lungs! For I didn’t want to wake my child. It ran, and I quickly covered it back up. Badly shaken I went elsewhere. Downstairs my other child was in the lounge, but I knew, there was no point asking that child for help, as the three of us are in the same boat – chickens!!! Paul who was my only savour was still snuggled up on bed.

I really hoped Paul would wake up soon before I left the house, and when I came out of the bath was very relieved to see that he was awake. So after a coffee, I asked him, “Can you take that basket down the stairs and put all the clothes from it, into the bath so that you can put the spider outside?” Paul replied, “Yes, ok.”

The basket was full, and he isn’t a morning person, so risking life and limb, and unable to see over the huge pile of clothes, he too the first step down our steep stairs. As he neared the last one, I guided him with my voice.

He took the basket, and put it in the bath, I watched as he took the clothes out, but was gutted that it could not be found!!! Paul said, “It’s gone,” Those were crushing words I didn’t want to hear. WHERE had it gone to? Was it still upstairs, did it decide it didn’t want to die and made a run for it? Oh dear. So, from work, I informed the kids, “There is a spider, running around upstairs.” The kids were on high alert.

The following day, while I was still at work, one of the kids sent on the group chat, WhatsApp a picture of a crushed dead spider that was in their bedroom, and wanted to know, “Was this the one?” It didn’t look like the one to me, but I didn’t want the child to be afraid, so I said, “Yes, I think so.”

Paul has told us all, “You are going to Spider hell.” To be honest, I really wouldn't want to go there!

Summer is coming, and I think, Paul should teach us, his beloved family, how to handle, respect, not to be afraid, of the fast ones, the big ones the slow ones, all of them in the Spider Family, that we will see in our big garden this year. Even our grandson Darius is petrified of them, and this shouldn’t be so.

To me, I think this is the only solution, how practical, and realistic it is, is another matter. xXx