Rubbing Off...

Yesterday we found a small gecko hanging out by our front door. My 14 year old daughter and I were observing it as it stood still. Sumo, my 3 yo found pleasure in observing it too....until it moved. When that tiny little amphibian moved, my and my daughter went to screaming and jumping around....and so did Sumo.

A friend of mine was over visiting and she got some hairspray to freeze the little bugger to make him easier to catch. She caught him and put him in a container (cutting of his tail in the process). Now...I was ready to throw that little something into a neighbor's yard three blocks down but my daughter wanted to keep him until my husband came home. My worst fear?....that the baby lizard like thing would get loose in my house. Stupid for me to freak out cuz it was really only about this big:

So for two days until hubby came the gecko lived on my kitchen island. For two days, my 3 yo didn't want any part of it.

I wondered how he went from being curious to being so afraid of that little thing.....OOOOOOOOhhhhhhh...cuz his MOMMY WAS SCARED!

So my fear rubbed off on him I'm sad to say. As a homeschooling Mom, I'm always reading about other homeschooling families looking at life as school and taking advantage of opportunities like this...but not me....I had taken this opportunity and created a fear of geckos in my 3yo.

When hubby got home I tried to get my 3yo son to show Daddy the gecko...you know...trying to redeem myself and encourage my son to look in awe at that little creature. "Nooooooooo" is all I got.

Around dinnertime, hubby and I are talking, and my son came up to the couch with a big smile on his face saying, "Daddy look at the lizard". There was no lizard. My son was carrying only the top from the container the lizard was in. Very slowly, I said, "Sumo, where is the lizard"....hoping to God that what I thought was happening was only a figment of my imagination.

I got up from the couch and saw the container laying on the floor with no lizard in it. "oh no", I cried. Right at this instant my little boy jumped on the couch and started crying and saying over and over, "I scared of the lizard"! Shoot...I rubbed off on him again....

Well, this started an all out search for the gecko which ended with me hoisting up our sofa and my husband doing the honors of capturing the rodent. We looked around for Sumo, only to find him in our bed, under our covers, hiding out. He would only come out when we had convinced that the "wicked old gecko" was gone. My husband told our son to stop crying and was actually getting irritated that his son was so freaked out by the incident. After all, he's a boy and boys are supposed to love this kind of stuff...that is...unless they are freaked out by their little-animal-fearing-mamas.

I'll have to remember that my power to influence my kiddos is awesome. I can rub off on them so easily. They watch and imitate so much of what we do and say. I'm gonna have to grow up and realize, the next time that I jump at a spider, that my son is watching. You think that maybe I can summon enough courage to be brave for the sake of his curiousity and feelings of security? I hope so.