Older post new blog

I wrote this, my only other myspace posting, in September of 2007
This now exausts my source of old material, so for the 2 of you who followed me over from there, new material is coming.

Friendly little house fly
Ok, so I am having a minor crisis of identity, am I the mom who wants her children to be open to new things and see beauty in nature of all kinds?
Or am I the mom who is grossed out by things like bugs, in her house, on her children?

I always thought I was the former, I once held a praying mantis for five minutes so my girls could watch how slowly it walked, I have picked up more "roly-polies" than I can count so that my girls could hold them without squishing them in the process, I have dug up worms and millipedes and looked up everything from ants to wasps online so as to answer my children's queries, however, it seems that I have drawn a line without realizing it - FLIES.

Yes, flies, I hate them, they are gross, and they are everywhere, and my stomach turned when I saw my daughter hold one the other day.

My beautiful 4-year old came into the office where I was trying to check email for the third time that day, (if you ever want the attention of preschoolers, just try to accomplish something else). She had something in her hand and was talking in a sweet little voice saying;
"Hello little cutie, you are so friendly, you are so nice and not scary at all."

I assumed that she was talking to a little doll or toy until my beautiful 2-year old started chiming in. "Mommy, it's a fwendwy fwy, it doedn't fwy way or nuffin" (I recognize that the typing out of baby talk is enough to turn the stomachs of those of you without children by itself, sorry, but it explains why I didn't understand what was going on right away.)

I stopped what I was doing and found that there was indeed a fly in Ella's hand, that it would not/could not fly away, and that they were treating it as if it were the most adorable thing in the universe. She did stop short of trying to kiss it, but she was wanting to pet it. My inner squeam shouted "smash it and trash it!" but my mother censor realized I really don't want my kids terrified by flies and so instead I said "Wow, that is really something, you know honey, flies are kind of dirty sometimes, so how about if we don't play with them?"
- And before I could even suggest releasing it to the wild she smashed it with her fingers threw it in the trash and went to wash her hands - with soap!
So now, I have a new identity crisis, am I the mom who needs to teach her children about respecting all of God's creations? or am I the mom who is proud of her fly smashing kids?