The Fear...

There are many amazing and interesting aspects to the human machine but one specifically that cropped up the other day there was fear.

I was in the living room with both Ewan (20 months old) and Bethany(3 years old). A moderately big house spider (in scottish terms, about the size of a £2 coin) crawled across the floor.

Bethany was scared of it and asked me to take it away. I picked it up and held it on my hand so she could see it properly from across the room and although not hysterical, she was visibly uncomfortable. Ewan on the other hand, wasn't bothered in the slightest even when shown right up close and given half the chance would probably have eaten it.

Now Mrs TFP is not good with spiders at all but in her defense, she is very good at hiding her fear in front of the children so as not to impress it upon them.

I believe that fears could be instinctively inherited like salmon returning to birth rivers or the suckling instinct but seeing this behaviour in Bethany and Ewan suggests that their levels of fear could be more learned and that children are just incredibly, incredibly perceptive to the point that even when we try hide it, they pick up the small nuances and turn this into their own version of the fear. I daresay outside family influences and the media probably contribute as well.

This has always facinated me because I don't understand the hysterical fear some people have of common house spiders which, in this country, aren't dangerous. That said, I've not tested my own spider tolerance with larger relatives on the arachnid family tree.