A reptile birthday party.

Benzen got invited to a 4 year old's birthday with a reptile theme! The parents had organized for a company to bring Australian reptiles to show the kids. The girl did an excellent job of educating the kids about wildlife that is not normally seen. There was a green tree frog, lizard, frog mouthed owl, the above baby crocodile, ring tailed possum and black head python. We were all allowed to touch most of the animals and have a close up look.

I am not a big fan of Australian reptiles. Where else can you find 9/10 most deadly snakes in the world? The deadliest snake is called a Brown Snake. Such a deadly name eh? We have found about 3-4 red belly black snakes around our property and of course numerous types of spiders.

I must confess that I don't garden with as much enthusiasm as others due to the presence of spiders. I believe I have a mild form of arachnophobia and really have no interest in dealing with my phobia. Usually there is a hunstman spider that resides in our mailbox and I freak out everytime I see it. But I am told time and time again how safe huntsman spiders are. However, they are hairy, big and with name like "hunstman" what am I suppose to think??!!

I don't know where my phobia has come from. The scariest spider we have in Canada is the black widow and (to my knowledge) if you get bitten you just get sick. It doesn't kill you. So I'm not particularly sure why. As I observed the kids at the party most were quite keen to learn about these animals and were most intrigued. They wanted to touch and cuddle and have the python wrap itself around their bodies!

I decided that my fears shouldn't limit my son in his exploration of his world. We're trying to teach him to have a healthy respect for animals and that he isn't to touch any spider or snakes he sees. But fear of such animals can stop him learning. What if he really enjoys such things and my fears have prevented him from his full potential? That's probably a bit unfair. So I intend to step up and provide my son with as my experience as possible even if I do feel a bit out of my comfort zone. I guess that's what parenting is all about.