Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Fear of Flying (Things)

Maia has developed a very real fear of Things That Fly. Despite my attempts to show her that they can't hurt her, she cowers when midges, flies, bees - pretty much anything winged and mobile comes her way. Spiders don't seem to phase her. Snakes she has only seen in books, but they don't seem to present problems. Just winged insects.

'A buzzy bee!' she says, as soon as she sees something approaching, and adopts a look of such fear that at first I thought she was joking. It was only as she cowered, hiding her head in her hands, that I realised that she isn't that good at acting.

A healthy respect for bees and wasps is a good thing, I think, but her fears seem to be getting to her even at night. She woke up a few days ago complaining of bees that stung her knees during the night. I tried to explain that it was a dream - a story in her head that didn't really happen. She looked at me, wide-eyed and affronted, and informed me that, actually it did.

Going to go and buy some books about friendly flies, and productive bees. Maybe I'll try and deflect her fear onto something useful like car filled roads, or sharp things. But for now we will have to keep ducking.

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